Over Troubled Waters
by littleblackcurlyhair
Summary: 16 year old Joey Tribbiani is walking home late at night when he has an encounter with a young homeless girl in need of help. He decides to help her, without realizing that he is meeting someone who will become a life -long best friend. Rated K plus for some violence and language. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: So, this was an idea that I had for another fic I am currently writing about Phoebe's background, but I decided not to use it, and turned it into this one shot instead. This takes place right after Phoebe's roommate, (the albino guy she lives with.) kills himself. Please read and review, I would appreciate it so much :) Also, I don't own Friends, etc. The title of this fic comes from a Simon and Garfunkle song that is surprisingly quite fitting with this story. Enjoy! :)_

Joey was beginning to regret his decision to cross the Brooklyn Bridge at this time of night. The rain had stopped, for the most part, but then came the wind. He runs his hand through his jet black hair, damp from the rain, and pushed it off of his face, and then zips up his red and white leather sports jacket to try and stay warm. As soon as he got to the other side, he could get on the subway train and go home.

His high school football team was having a bash at someone's house. And because Joey knew what a great opportunity parties were to score with chicks, he didn't hesitate to go. He had only joined the football team, because everyone knew that jocks got all the chicks in school. He liked sports, okay, but what he really wanted to do was act. He just wouldn't be caught dead hanging around with the drama crowd. The whole football thing seemed to be working out well for him, so far. At least it was before tonight. Their team won the game against a Brooklyn high school team, and had proceeded to the nearest empty house of a teammate, with a beer keg to celebrate. Katie Kirkland: The head cheerleader of the cheer-leading squad, and possibly one of the hottest girls at Joey's school had started to talk to him. And Joey started laying on his usually successful charm, flirting it up when her, when some random girl walked up to him and slapped him across the face. It took Joey a few minutes after for him to vaguely remember her from another party he had attended not long ago. Apparently, he may have made out with her, but he didn't remember that, or much of anything from that night, for that matter. The girl yelled at him and cussed him out in front of everyone. Katie ended up walking off with some other guy on his team, looking less than impressed. After that, Joey decided to leave. But girl's words were still running through his mind.

"I thought you were different, Joey Tribbiani! I thought you were a decent guy! But you don't care about anyone but yourself! You're just a selfish pig, like every other guy at this school!"

That really bothered him more than the slap in the face had. Who was she to say he wasn't a decent guy? He knew that he was. When he wanted to be, anyways. And worst of all Katie Kirkland thought it was true. Joey's thoughts were interrupted when he came across something in his path that he didn't make out in the dark, at first, and nearly tripped over it. Catching his balance, Joey put his hands on the large, odd shaped object and realized it was a guitar case. He looked around him, but he didn't see anyone nearby. It was so weird that someone had just randomly left it there on the walking path. While he was trying to decide what he should do with it, he heard a faint, disturbing sound. To him it sounded like a whimper. Startled, he let go of the case, and stared at it when it crashed to the ground. Was there something alive inside of it? Maybe he should just leave it be. He was about to walk away, when he heard it again, louder. It was definitely someone crying. He didn't know where it was coming from, because there was no one within earshot of him. He checked behind him again, and saw something he had walked right past without noticing. Just a few feet above ground level was a person, standing on the hand rail. Joey's heart rate quickened at the sight of them, when he realized what was happening.

He could not just walk away from them. He needed to do something. Slowly, he walks closer to the person, staring up at them. He can tell from the sound of her voice, as she sobs, that she is female. Other than that, he would have never known just by looking at the back of her, with her over-sized, mismatched clothes. Her green army jacket was covered in rips and tears. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a messy braid over her shoulder, and the loose strands were blowing in all directions from the wind. She's has one hand on a lamp post. It's the only thing keeping her up. He needed to be sure not to startle her.

"Uhm...excuse me. Miss?"

Her head snaps around, suddenly at the sound of his voice and looks at him. Her pale green eyes are red from tears.

"Leave me alone!" she says, her voice sounding frantic. "Stay back!"

Joey comes even closer. He leans over the rail to get a better look at her, while considering his options. She looks much younger than he was expecting. In fact, she couldn't be much older than he is. And Joey also can't help but notice that she's quite attractive, despite her disheveled appearance. He considers his options for a few seconds. The way he see's it, he can try and talk her into coming down, or he can grab her, and force her to come down. The second option seems a little dangerous. One wrong move and she would fall to her death. Slowly he reaches his hand towards her, thinking maybe she won't notice.

"I said stay back!" she snaps. "Don't you dare fucking touch me, or I'll let go! I mean it!"

Joey quickly raises his hands, defensively. "Alright, alright..I'm not gonna touch you, see? We're good. But uhm...how about coming down from there?"

"Look, man, I'm gonna jump whether you're standing here or not. So if you don't  
want to be traumatized for the rest of your life, I suggest you move the hell on!"

Joey glances down, over the rail at the water below him. Being a little afraid of heights himself, he can't imagine what it would be like to fall down there from this distance. Knowing that forcing the girl to come down is no longer an option, he decides his best bet is to keep talking to her. "Don't you think it'll hurt?" he asks.

"No! I won't feel a thing! I'll be dead as soon as I hit the water. Listen, I've been planning this all day, and I'm not about to let you stop me! Now get out of here! I'm not gonna tell you again!"

He looks up at her. "You sure about that?"

"Yes I'm sure! What, you think I won't do it!? I will! I'm not kidding!"

"I didn't mean that." Joey tells her. "I meant what you said about you not feeling a thing when you hit the water. I'm no expert or nothing, but I did take a pretty hard hit playing football last summer. Not only did I get a concussion, but I snapped my collar bone in two. Even though it knocked the daylights out of me, I felt everything. At least for a few seconds, even after I blacked out. I don't think there's such thing as not feeling anything when you take a hit like that."

The girl gives a sarcastic laugh. "Gee, that's lovely story, but I think I'm gonna kill myself now, if you don't mind."

She shifts her feet, and for a second he thinks she's actually about to do it. He quickly leans forward, putting his hand out, just in case he needs to catch her.

"No, no! Wait! L-look...why do you wanna kill yourself anyways?"

"Why do you care?" she asks. "You don't even know me."

"I'd care if you died."

She laughs again, shaking her head. "No you wouldn't."

"I would." he insists.

"People like you don't care about people like me! Not when I'm sitting in the streets anyways. You just walk on past like you don't even see me. So why do you care now?"

"Hey, woah.." Joey says, feeling a little insulted by her claim. "Who says I'd just walk on by? You think I'd be able to walk past a girl as pretty as you and not notice?"

She rolls her eyes. "I know what you're trying to do, and it's not going to work.."

"All I'm trying to do," he says. "Is figure out why a smart, pretty girl like you would wanna do something stupid like this?"

"Why not!?" she snaps, her voice rising. "My mom did it! My roommate did it, and now I don't have a friend left in the world, so I'm going to do it!"

Joey falls silent, starting down at the water below them again, for a moment, trying to think of something to say. He raises his head and looks at her.

"I'll be your friend."

Another laugh escapes her throat.

Joey shrugs. "Why's that so funny?"

"Because! As soon as I step down from here..which I'm NOT going to do, by the way! You're not going to want anything to do with me! Face it, you wouldn't want to be seen in public with someone like me. I know how boys like you are!"

This time, Joey is the one who laughs. "Boys like me? What do you mean by that?"

"Yeah." she replies. "Jocks. Morons, all of you! All you care about is your giant egos, and your fancy sports cars and-!"

"Woah, woah, woah.." Joey interupts her, genuinley offended. "What is up with you? A minute ago, you accuse ME of being judgemental. What about you, huh? You don't know a thing about me, and you're calling me a moron? How do you even know I'm a jock?"

"Oh gee, let me think.. maybe because you're wearing one of those stupid jock jackets? Or the fact that you just told me you play football!" she says, in a mocking tone.

Joey pauses for moment, unable to come up with a good argument to defend himself. With a shrug, he unzips his jacket. "Alright.." He pulls it off and tosses it down. "Happy now?"

The girl watches him, curiously from the corner of her eye. She still doesn't budge from where she's standing. But Joey is about 90% postive that she isn't going to jump in front of him, like she threatened, earlier. It's only a matter of talking her down, at this point, which hasn't proven to be an easy task so far. She's much more stubborn than he thought. He has one idea left up his sleeve. He places his hands on the rail she's standing on, and lifts himself up. Holding onto the same lamp post she's holding for support, he stands upright on the railing.

"Hey! What're you, crazy!? You're gonna get yourself killed!"

Joey laughed. "And you're not?" He hooks one arm tightly around the post, securing himself.

"I don't care! That's the difference between you and me!"

He holds his free hand out to her. "Come on," he says. "Just give me your hand.. You hungry? I know a great pizza place on the other side of this bridge. My treat. Whaddaya say?"

She looks at him, glaring furiously. "I am in the middle of commiting suicide! I am jumping off this bridge!" she yells.

Joey shrugs. "Well, then.. you leave me no choice."

She lets out a startled scream, nearly losing her balance, when he grabs her hand that's on the post. He holds it as tight as he can. The lamp post is now on front of their hands and the only way she's going to fall is if she manages to get her hand free from his.

"Let go of me!" she shrieks at him.

"No can do," he says. "You're wanna jump from here? Fine. But you're gonna have to take me with you. That's the deal. You don't wanna live with that, do you?"

She stops struggling to get away and glares at him. "I'll be dead, what do I care?"

Joey considers her point and nods. "Alright..but I doubt you'll go to heaven for doing something like that!"

"I don't believe in heaven, I believe in re-encarnation!" she tells him.

"Well.." Joey opens his mouth to reply and pauses, running out of ideas on what to sayto her. He gives an exhasperated sigh. "Look, just step down with me. Please? You don't have to do this. I know whatever's going on seems bad now, but trust me,  
you have so much to live for."

"How would you know?" she asks in an unconvinced tone.

He gives a shrug. "Well..I just know that if you were meant to fall off this bridge tonight, I wouldn't be on here with you right now, trying to stop you. It's like my mom always says..everything happens for a reason."

To his surprise, she looks at him and falls silent, considering his words. "My mom use to say that, too. That's...kinda freaky, actually...I almost feel like she's here right now."

Joey nods. "I'd say someone out there is looking out for you. Why else would I have seen that guitar case when I did? Look.. I might just be some moron jock to you, but..obviously you need some help right now. And I wanna help you. Please?"

The girl gazes down at the water below them, that Joey is specifically trying to avoid looking at right now. If it suddenly hits him how high up he is right now, he might panic. She stares for a moment, contemplating long enough to make him worry that she might actually do it, and take him with her. then she looks over at him. She slowly lowers herself down, bringing her free hand onto the rail, and Joey does the same. He finally releases her hand when both of them have their feet on the ground. They look at each other, neither knowing what to say at first.

"I'm Joey." he tells her, offering his opposite hand. She looks at it, hesitantly, and then takes it.

"Phoebe" she tells him.

He shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, Phoebe."

He picks up his jacket off the ground, and notices that her clothes are soaked right through. "You must be cold.." he says.

She crosses her arms, and shakes her head. "Nah. I'm used to it."

Without warning Joey takes his jacket and drapes his jacket over her shoulders.

"Oh.." she says, taken back with surprise by this gesture. She looks at him, uncertainly for a moment, in a way that gives Joey the feeling that he might be the first person to offer her a jacket, or even consider that she might be cold.

"What's the matter?" he asks. "You too good to wear a stupid jock jacket?"

"N-no! I just.."

Joey smiles to let her know he was just teasing her. And she smiles back. It's the first time he's seen her smile, and he has to admit to himself, it's quite a nice one. It makes her look so pretty. Especially since most homeless people he's met having rotting or missing teeth. He nudges her in a playful way, and places his hand on her shoulder. "Come on. I don't know about you, but I could sure go for some pizza right now. All this commotion's made me hungry." he says. He picks up her guitar case, and hands it to her. "And maybe you can tell me a little more about yourself?"

She takes the case from him, and they start walking towards the other side of the bridge. She seems a little stand-offish at first. He can tell that it's been a while since she's interacted with other people much.

"What do you wanna know?" she asks. Eventually, he'd like to know her whole story. How she came to end up on the streets, and more importantly, what brought her to this bridge tonight with the intention of ending her life. But he decides he should start off with some small talk, to keep her comfortable.

He motions to her guitar case. "Well, what about this? You play that thing, or what?"

"Yeah.." she tells him. "I write my own songs, too."

"Yeah? That's cool." he says. "What else do you like to do?"

She thinks about it for a moment. "Sometimes, I like to buy cat food for all the strays that live on my street."

"Wow," he says. "That's really nice of you."

"Uh-huh. There are a lot of them."

He listens, with genuine interest as she tells him more about the cats. How she has names for each of them. This is a good start, and he's glad that she trusts him enough to share small details of her life with him. Despite her tough exterior,Joey can tell that there is a lot more to this girl than most people would care to see. The more he listens to Phoebe talk, the more he sees her as a person. He can see that she's clever, and funny, and kind-hearted. He feels a warm sense of accomplishment, in knowing that he's done something great tonight. Not just by helping some strange homeless girl. It's not even about how he saved her life tonight. It's about how he's making a new friend. And what makes him feel really good is knowing that he gave her a chance, when no one else would. He already has a feeling that this is going to be the start of something great for both of them. He finds it hard to believe that moments ago, she was about to jump off of that bridge. He's glad that she didn't. Otherwise, he never would have had this opportunity to get to know her.


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Because this story got some great responses, and because I really loved writing Joey and Phoebe so young, I've decided to continue this fic. I hope I don't ruin it by making it longer. Any feedback is more than welcome, I'd love to know what you guys think. Also just a heads up, this chapter will most likely have some violence and swearing, but nothing too extreme. Enjoy :)_

After staring at the clock, trying not to fall asleep in class, for what felt like an eternity, the bell finally rings, dismissing Joey and his classmates from school for the day. He eagerly leaves his class room, pushing through the bodies of people also trying to get out of there, and finally reaches his locker. As he dumps an armful of books in there - it's not like he plans to spend his weekend studying, anyways.- his friend from the football team, Danny Cappaletti approaches.

"Hey, Tribbiani! What's up, man? You coming to the party at O'Doyle's place tonight? I hear there's gonna be a ton of babes. Plus, free booze. His parent's are loaded, man. They got a pool and everything. You in?" he asks, slapping him on the back.

Joey shuts his locker and shrugs. "I would, but I'm grounded, man."

His friend rolls his eyes and gives a snort of disapproval. "Lame, bro. What for?"

"For coming home late last weekend." he explains.

"Dude, that sucks. You're gonna miss a killer party! You should just sneak out, man, come on."

Joey gives a sigh. "Uh..I could try, but it's kinda hard not getting busted with so many stupid sisters around, ratting me out all the time, you know?"

Danny shrugged. "Well, hey bring some of 'em with you! I know a lot of guys who wouldn't mind getting some of that!"

Joey reaches over, pounding his friend in the arm. "Shut up, man! I don't need to hear it. It's bad enough they go to the same school as me."

Danny laughs. "Anyways, Tracey and I are headed over to the diner with a couple people for something to eat right now. You coming?"

Joey sighs. Tracey is Danny's semi-serious girlfriend. She's on the cheer squad. "Yeah, right." he mutters. "So I can tag along and be a third wheel? No thanks."

"Hey man, it's not my fault you don't have a girlfriend. I tried fixing you up with one of her friends."

Joey grinned, remembering the friend he's referring to. "Yeah, I fixed up with her alright. What was her name again?"

Danny rolls his eyes at him.

"Look, that's just not my thing, alright? I mean why settle down with one chick when I can settle down with several chicks, you know what I mean? Guys like you don't know what you're missing out on, man. There are so many babes to chose from at this school, it's too easy. "

"Yeah, right, keep telling yourself that, Tribbiani." Danny looks up at someone approaching them and smiles. "Speaking of easy babes, man..here comes one now." Joey turns his head, excitedly, and sees that Danny is referring to his oldest sister, Gina. He turns to take another swing at his friend, but he jumps out of the way, laughing.

"See you at practice on Sunday." he calls as he walks away.

"Up yours." Joey mutters. He hears Gina calling him and walks faster, trying to ignore her. She catches up and grabs him by the arm.

"Where do you think you're going? Come on, I don't have all day! I'm dropping you kids off at home, and then I'm off to Chad's house."

Joey rolls his eyes. By "you kids", she's referring to Joey, and two of his other sisters who go to his school. Dina, who's a senior, like Gina, only she hasn't flunked a grade, like she has, and Mary-Teresea, who's a grade below Joey. And by "Chad" she's referring to her 20something year old boyfriend. Their other four sisters are in middle school, and have to be picked up on the way. Gina, being the oldest has the duty of driving them all to and from school. But Joey hates cramming into their family's old beat up Volvo with them, it's such an embarrassment. Usually, he rode home with a friend after he and the football team went and hung out somewhere for a few hours to wind down.

"I'm not riding with you." he tells her.

His sister stands with her hands on her hips. "Hate to break it to you, little bro, but you don't have a choice. You're grounded, so you can't go anywhere. And if I don't get you home, I'm the one who's gonna get an earful from Ma. Now let's go! You're wasting my time!"

"Who said I wasn't going home? Just not with you." he tells her.

Gina shakes her head letting out a sigh of annoyance. "Alright fine. Walk home for all I care."

"Maybe I will!"

"Good, I hope you get mugged, you stupid jerk!" she says.

Joey mutters a curse word at her in Italian, as she stomps off in her black stilettos to go find his other sisters. Joey doesn't care. He's got other plans.

. . .

Joey lives about 20 minutes walking distance from his school, but he takes a different route that he knows will take longer. At least that's what he'll probably end up telling his mother so she doesn't extend his grounding. He wasn't out partying last weekend when she grounded him. That was the night he met Phoebe, and he made a promise to her that he'd come back and see her again. He wasn't one to break a promise to someone. Besides, he really did want to see her again, and make sure she was alright, after last weekend. He had been worrying about her, living on the streets all by herself. Although she told him that she wasn't alone, and she had friends who's couches she could crash on if she needed to. He didn't want her to think he had forgotten about her. It had been a week since their first encounter, after all.

He walks until he ends up in a shady area near Central Park that most of his friends tend to avoid. Even when Joey was little, his parents always warned him about not going down this particular street, considered the slums, by most, but this was where Phoebe said she'd probably be, last he saw her. As he makes his way down the street, he keeps an eye out for her, amongst the many other homeless people who hung around here. An old woman stops him and asks him for some change. Joey digs some out of his pocket and drops it into the cup she's holding. "Oh, bless you, young man." she say. "Excuse me," Joey says, stopping her before she carries on. "Do you happen to know a girl named Phoebe?"

"Who?"

"Phoebe. She's blonde, around the same age as me?"

"Oh...Oh, yes. I think so. She's the one with the guitar. I've seen her around."

"Yeah, that's right. Do you know where I might find her?"

"Well, no. Sorry. I haven't seen her in a few days."

"Alright, thanks anyways.." Joey keeps on searching, starting to get worried. He can't help but think about when he found her, on the bridge. She was so upset that night. What if she went back? He walks quicker, and stops a few more people to ask about her, but they either don't know her or say that she's been gone for days.

"Shit..." Joey mutters. He has no way of finding her other than coming to find her. She doesn't have an address or a phone number. Something could happen to her, and no one would even know. Last week, she didn't mention anything about a family. Joey might be the only person who would notice her missing. He's beginning to contemplate telling the police that she's missing. The nearest station that he knows of is a few train stops from here on the subway.

He leaves the park and crosses the street to where the station is. As he walks down the stairs, something catches his attention. The sound of a guitar playing, and a familiar voice. He turns around and sees her, leaning against the wall near the bottom of the steps, with her guitar case open. With a sigh of relief to see her, Joey approaches just as she's kneeling down next to it, counting her change. "Phoebe!"

She looks up. "Joey? What are you doing here?"

"I've been looking for you. You said you'd be at the park today!"

"Oh, right. Well..I was, but then I came down here. You know, afternoon rush. I usually make quite a bit this time of day. Besides, I didn't think you'd actually show."

He leans against the wall, looking down at her. "Why not? I said I would, didn't I?"

"I know, but I thought you were just..y'know, trying to be nice and stuff." She lays her guitar down in it's case and closes it before she picks it up.

"Am I interrupting your work?" he asks her.

"Nah, I need a break anyways." He follows her as she makes her way up the stairs.

"You know, I was worried, when I couldn't find you." he tells her.

She looks at her with a puzzled expression. "You were? Really? Huh. I'm not really used to people worrying about me. Normally I just do what I want, and nobody cares."

"Must be nice." he tells her as they reach the street. "So, anyways, I'm starved. You know any place good to eat around here?"

"Well, I was just gonna go down to the soup kitchen later, you know, cause it's free."

He gives a laugh. "I've got cash."

"Must be nice." she says, teasingly. "Though I did get quite a few quarters today."

"Forget it, Phoebe. I've got more than enough for both of us. I was thinking about getting a meatball sub some place. How's that sound?"

Phoebe makes a face. "You eat meat? Gross."

He laughs. "Alright, you can get one without meatballs. Whatever. Although I have to say, you might just be the pickiest homeless person I've ever met."

"Hey, just because I'm poor doesn't mean I'll eat the flesh off of some innocent dead animal, like some kind of barbarian!"

"Why not? The more innocent they are, the more delicious!" he tells her with a grin.

She makes a face of disgust and follows him a few more blocks to a café. After ordering two sandwiches, one meatball sub, and one veggie sub, they sit down to eat inside.

"You know.." Phoebe says. "My feelings wouldn't have been hurt if you didn't show up today, Joey."

"What do you mean?" Joey asks before taking a bite of his sub. "Joey Tribbiani doesn't break a promise."

"Well, I just mean..you're 16. It's Friday evening. You've probably got a lot more exciting things to be doing than hanging out with some bum off the streets."

"No, not really." he tells her. "I'm grounded, for one thing. Besides, maybe I like hanging out with you."

She gives him an indignant look, like she doesn't believe him, which is fair. He's come to understand that many people don't treat her with kindness, let alone friendship. But he really does hope to earn her trust and be her friend.

"Why?"

He looks up from his sandwich and shrugs. "I dunno. Why not? You're nice. And you've got a lot of cool stories about living on the street. Plus, you're kinda cute." he gives her a wink and a smile that most girls can't resist. However, Phoebe just laughs. "What?"

"Nothing.." she says, shaking her head, and takes a bite from her own sandwich. "That was just really sweet, is all."

Joey smirks. He finishes off what's left of his sandwich in one bite and licks the sauce off his fingers, ungracefully. "You ready to go?" he asks her.

"Yeah..uhm, maybe I'll just get this wrapped up to go."

He eyes her plate and gives a snort. "Really? It's a napkin and a piece of tomato."

"I know, it's just..I never know when my next meal is gonna be."

Joey reaches for his wallet. "Alright, tell you what. I'll order another sandwich, and we'll split it."

"Are you sure?" she asks.

"Yeah, it's no big deal. I'm still hungry, anyways." he tells her and makes his way to the front counter.

"Alright, well..thanks. That's nice of you." she says with a smile. "I'm gonna wait outside, ok?"

"Sure, I'll be there in a minute."

After Joey orders another sub to go, half with no meat, he takes the paper bag outside, only to find, much to his confusion, that Phoebe isn't there. He looks up and down the street. "Phoebe?" he starts to walk around, wondering where she could have got to. He doesn't want to wander too far, in case she comes back. As he walks past a dark alley way, he hears some laughing, followed by Phoebe's voice.

"Hey! Give it back, you assholes!"

Joey walks quickly down the alley. In the darkness, he can make out three figures. As he gets closer, he sees one of them is Phoebe, and two big, tough-looking thugs. One of them has Phoebe's guitar case and he's laughing as he holds it out of her reach. "I don't think so, blondie. See, I like this guitar. I think I'm gonna keep it." He pushes Phoebe back and laughs as she makes a grab for it.

"Yeah," his friend says, laughing along. "I hear the pawn shops pay good money for stuff like this."

Joey approaches them. "Hey, what's going on?" he asks Phoebe.

"I was standing outside and they took my guitar and ran with it, and now they won't give it back!" she tells him. Joey turns to the two bullying thugs.

"Why don't you guys find something better to do then pick on her, alright? Give it back."

They look at each other and laugh, in mocking tone. The one holding her guitar case takes a step towards Joey. He realises that he's much bigger than he thought, but Joey's been in a few fights in his life, and he's pretty confident he could take him if he had to.

"What are you gonna do about it, kid?" he gives Joey a hard shove, and he stumbles back a step, but he doesn't back down.

"I'm serious." he says. "You better give it back."

The thug laughs again. "Or what, huh? You gonna make us? You think we're scared of some little punk like you?"

Joey's hands tighten into fists at his sides.

The thug steps even closer to him. "Tell you what. If your little girlfriend's guitar means that much to you, you can _buy_ it back from us. Hand over your wallet, and it's yours."

"Why don't you eat shit, ok?" Joey replies. "It doesn't belong to you, to begin with so if you don't give it back-" Phoebe grabs him by the arm.

"Joey, come on. Let's just go..It's not worth it."

"I'm not asking you to hand it over," the thug says. "I'm telling you that either you give it to me, or I'm just gonna take it, _and _your girlfriend's guitar. It's up to you."

Phoebe grabs his other arm. "Forget it. We're not negotiating with these assholes. Let's go." She pulls him back, steering him away from them, with some difficulty. Joey's so angry that he's not willing to give them the satisfaction of walking away with her guitar. "Come on!" Phoebe insists.

"You guys are pathetic losers." She says over her shoulder, as they start to leave. "Maybe one day you'll have the balls to pick on someone you're own size!"

"Ooh, big talk for a little street whore!" one of them says, and they both break into laughter. That's the last straw for Joey. He turns around grabs the one who's got her guitar by the shoulder. When he turns around her jams his fist into his face with all his strength, sending him staggering back a few steps in pain. It felt good to hit him. Even more so when he sees that he made his nose bleed. His eyes lock into Joey's with a furious stare.

"You shouldn't have done that, you little prick. Grab him!" Before Joey can react the second thug has his arms in a tight grip behind his back. Joey's realizing for the first time that he's unfairly outnumbered, but he's not ready to give up. As he's struggling to get away - all he needs is one arm to hit him again- the other thug digs into Joey's pocket and pulls out his wallet. He laughs, blood staining his teeth as he holds it in front of Joey's face. "Now you're really gonna pay for this, kid."

He see's the fist coming, but he's unable to move out of the way and it hits the side of his face. He hears Phoebe scream his name as the second fist strikes the other side of his face. Suddenly, the thug who's holding his arms loosens his grip as he stumbles forward.

"Let him go, you bastards!" Phoebe yells as she tries to jump him from behind, but she's so tiny compared to him, and he throws her off with little effort, sending her to the ground. Joey takes the opportunity to break free from his grasp. He realizes that if he doesn't put up a good fight, Phoebe's going to get hurt, too. He slugs the second thug hard in the stomach, sending him doubled over in pain. He's about to hit him again, when his friend grabs him by the back of his jacket. Joey struggles to get away. He loses his footing and lands on the ground. As he tries to get up, a boot kicks him hard in the face, sending him back to the ground. The next thing he knows, there are several boots, kicking him and stomping him everywhere. Each one hurting more then the last. Every time he tries to get up, he gets kicked. Eventually all he can do is lay there, helplessly, praying it'll be over soon. Suddenly, there is a loud crash. One of the thugs lets out a groan and the kicking stops. By this point, Joey is in so much pain that he can't get up, even though he wants to. Blood has run into his eyes, and he can hardly see anything, but he can hear Phoebe shouting.

"Yeah! How do you like that!? You want some of this, too!?"

He hears footsteps echo down the alley as someone breaks into a run. He lifts his arm and uses his sleeve to wipe the blood from his eye. He see's Phoebe standing over the leader of the thugs. He's lying on the ground, cowering, as she holds what looks like a broken bottle, with sharp jagged pieces, threateningly above him in one hand. She has a tight grasp on his wrist with the other. "Give me the wallet, before I jam this in your fucking throat!"

"Alright!" he cries. Joey can hear the fear in his voice. "Alright, h-here. Take it!"

She roughly lets go of his arm. "Now get the fuck out of here and don't come back! If you do, you're dead, you hear me!?"

It takes the guy a couple tries, but he manages to scramble to his feet. "Crazy bitch.." he mutters before he runs off.

Joey watches from where he's laying with amazement. Although part of his ego is deeply ashamed that he let himself get so badly beaten, and that a girl had to rescue him, mostly he's just impressed with how well she handled it. 'This girl is awesome..' he thinks to himself. He tries to pull himself upright and pain shoots through him, causing an involuntary cry of anguish. Phoebe quickly turns around.

"Joey?" she lowers herself to the ground. "Are you ok? Are you hurt bad?"

He tries to answer her, but his entire body is throbbing with pain and he can't speak. She very carefully turns him over, onto his back. "Oh my God.." she mutters, at the sight of him. He doesn't want to believe he's hurt as badly as it looks. He slowly tries to get up again.

"No, no! Don't move!" She cries. "Just...stay there, ok?" She takes off her shabby green jacket, and folds it over a couple times. She gently lifts his head and places it underneath. Her olive green eyes are filled with fear. She takes his hand and lightly squeezes it. "Joey...you're going to be ok, alright? I promise. Just stay here. I'll be right back, ok? I'm going to go get help." She lets go of his hand, and is gone before he can say anything.

He doesn't want her to leave. He's starting to feel weak and dizzy, like he's spinning in circles. He closes his eyes, feeling tired, suddenly. He just wants to go to sleep..


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: I wanted to make this chapter longer, but I didnt want to over-do it. But there will be more updates soon! Thanks so much to everyone who read and/or reviewed the last chapter. Hope you keep reading, and enjoy!_

Phoebe sits in the waiting room of the hospital, feeling nervous, and helpless. She'd been there for only 20 minutes or so since the ambulance brought her and Joey there. It felt more like hours. They'd rushed him away, still unconcious, without any word to Phoebe about what was going on. At least she was able to ride with him in the ambulance. Phoebe hated ambulances. They brought back painful memories of her mother, and Snowy, her former roommate. Snowy was the only real friend that Phoebe had since she moved to New York 3 years ago. He took her in, allowed her to share his home, an old run down car, which he paid for by washing windows, and basically taught her the ropes about how to survive under such unfortunate conditions in the big city. She looked up to him a lot, and then he killed himself, just like her mother. Just when Phoebe was beginning to think that she was cursed, from ever allowing anyone to get close to her, she meets Joey. And right now, she didn't even know if he was going to pull through or not. The ambulance that took Snowy away never brought him back. She wasn't going to let that happen again. That's why she insisted on riding with him.

Even though she hadn't known Joey long, she was so worried about him. He was only 16. He had his whole life ahead of him. And beyond that,  
he saved her life last week. If it wasn't for him, she'd be dead. Now, she couldn't do anything to save his. She felt terrible. _'If he dies,_'  
she thought. 'I_t'll be my fault. Maybe I really am cursed. I wish I had never met him. If I never met him, this wouldn't have happened_  
_to him.'_

Phoebe reaches over and picks up a medical brochure from the wall. She needed something, anything to take her mind off of this, or else she  
was going to lose it. She leafs through without really reading, and breifly studied a labeled diagram of the human skeleton. Normally she finds  
any new information interesting, having dropped out of high school in 10th grade. She holds up her hand in front of the brochure, staring at the  
sections of her fingers between the joints. "The phalanges..." she says, intrieged by the new word she's just learned. "Huh..I always wondered what they were called." she says to no one, in particular. _'I wonder how many broken bones Joey has.._' she thinks.

She sighs deeply, and gets up, unable to sit any more. She can't bare the anticipation. She walks up to the receptionist desk. "Yeah, hi. Uhm,  
I came in here, like, forever ago with a guy who was badly injured and..I need to know where he is."

"Ok," the receptionist begins, as she turns to her file folders. "What is the patient's name?"

"Joey." she tells her, and pauses. What did he say his last name was? Something Italian, for sure. "Joey...uhm...Tribbiani? I think?"

The receptionist puts down the files and eyes Phoebe over the frames of her glasses. "And what is your relationship to this patient?"

"Well, I happen to be his...his sister." She's hesitant to give out her real name, as she always is. She knows that she's been reported a missing  
person since she ran away to New York when she was 15. She blurts out the first name that comes to her mind, as it was on the name tag of one of the  
paramedics who took her and Joey to the hospital. "Regina. Regina...Phalange."

The receptionist continues to eye her, suspiciously.

"Yes, uhm...you see, I'm...his half-sister. So we have different last names."

"Well, Ms. Phalange," she replies. "I'm afraid I don't have any information on the condition of the patient. And I can't allow any visitors in without  
permission from his doctor. If you'll have a seat, I'm sure it won't be much longer."

"Look," Phoebe says, impatiently. "Can't I just go see him? Please. I just want to know how he's doing."

"Well, I'm sorry, but-"

"Excuse me, young lady?" Phoebe turns around, as a doctor appears in the hallway.  
"Were you the one who brought in the young man who's been mugged?"

"Yes!" she eagerly answers. "Yes.. I'm his sister. Half-sister. Is...is he ok?"

The doctor looks to consult the clipboard in his hands, pressumably Joey's medical charts. He has no blood on his lab coat. That's a good sign.  
"Well," he begins. "I'm afraid he's suffered a mild concussion. We've been montitoring him this past hour, and he should be fine. No serious damage."  
He flips the chart over, to show Phoebe some X-rays. "As you can see here, we have some minor hare-line fractures to two of his lower ribs. One more  
serious fracture to the right wrist. We'll need to put a cast on it. Other than that, just a lot of scrapes and bruises. I'd say he's a very lucky young man. We've seen much worse outcomes in these types of situations."

Phoebe let out a huge sigh, relieved to know that he wasn't as bad off as she thought.

"He should be able to leave here tonight if all goes well. Now, we'll need to contact his legal guardian before we can sign him out. Would that be you?"

"No." Phoebe tells him. "That would be his parents. Uh..my parents, also." She digs into her back jeans pocket for Joey's wallet, where she's been keeping it safe. "Their contact information should be in there. But I'm going to need that back."

"Of course." The doctor says. He hands the wallet to the nurse, who takes out Joey's medical card to copy the information down.

"Doctor," Phoebe says. "Can I see him?"

"Of course." he says. "I'll take you to his room."

Phoebe takes his wallet back and follows the doctor to a room with many beds. Joey is lying on one while a nurse applies a plaster cast to his arm. He's fully conscious. He has a bandage covering the skin near his right eyebrow. His other eye is bruised, and swelling. His lower lip is split. He has another bruise on his cheekbone. Phoebe looks away from his face. She suposes she should be glad that he doesn't look as bad as he did after the beating, but looking at his injuries gives her a pang of guilt in her stomach.

"There you are, all finished." The nurse tells Joey. "You'll need to give that a few minutes to set, ok?" She turns around, noticing Phoebe standing there. "Looks like you have a visitor. I'll go and get your prescription, ok, hon?" she says before she leaves the room. Leaving Phoebe alone with him.

"She was cute." Joey remarks. With some difficulty, he pulls himself to an upright sitting position and turns to face Phoebe. "If my face wasn't so messed up right now, I bet I could get a date with her. What do you think?"

There are so many things Phoebe wants to say to him. So many questions she wants to ask, but her voice seems caught in her throat at the moment. Joey lowers his head to look at her.

"Phoebe, what's wrong?"

Phoebe looks up, for as long as she can stand it, before she stares down at her dirty shoes. "Nothing..."

"Bullshit." Joey says. "What's the matter? Does my face really look that bad?"

"No." she tells him. "It...actually doesn't look that bad."

"Then why won't you look at me?"

Phoebe says nothing. She doesn't know how to answer him.

"Can you sit down, at least?" he asks, motioning to the chair across from his bed.

Phoebe does so, to make him happy. She knows that once she starts talking, she's going to get emotional. Not the good kind of emotional, either.

"Joey.." she finally manages to say. "That was really stupid what you did. I mean really, really stupid! Those guy were huge! And there were two of them! I mean, do you realise how lucky you are that I was there? If I wasn't they probably would have killed you!"

"But they took your guitar! Those guys were assholes!" he points out.

"So what? It's just a guitar. I could get another one. It's not worth getting the crap kicked out of you and almost getting yourself killed!"

Joey gives a shrug. "Sorry.." he mutters. "I was just..trying to help."

Phoebe sighs, feeling more tense, guilty feelings. She looks at him, for the first time, with sympathy. "I know you were. But I live on the streets, Joey. I deal with things like this all the time. You don't."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say I got the crap kicked out of me." He tells her. "I mean, I got a few good hits in, right?"

Phoebe manages a small smile. "Sure. You showed them, alright."

"Besides, they didn't have to call you a whore." he mutters.

Phoebe pauses for a few seconds. "How do you know I'm not?"

She fights the urge to laugh when his eyes suddenly widen, and he stares at her.

"...what!?"

Unable to control herself, Phoebe bursts out laughing. Joey still appears very confused.

"Wait...are you..are you seriously a.."

"No!" she says, still laughing. "God, I can't believe you actually fell for that!"

His look of bewilderment drops and he shakes his head, with a smile. He lightly hits her on the arm, with his uninjured hand, as she continues laughing. Feeling in a much lighter mood now, Phoebe's eyes fall down to his cast. "How's your arm?"

Joey sighs. "Hurts like hell. It's my throwing arm, too. I guess that's it for football season.."

Phoebe's smile disappears. "Awh..Joey, I'm sorry."

"For what? Hey, at least I got this cool cast. Oh, and I got some wicked stitches, too. Six of 'em. Wanna see?" he asks, touching the bandage on his forhead.

"No.." she tells him. "That's ok. Look...Joey, I..I really am sorry."

He gives her a half smile, and reaches out to touch her shoulder. "Don't be sorry. It's not your fault, ok?"

She nods, though she doesn't believe him. It IS her fault.

"And like you said. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be dead right now." he tells her.

She gives a shrug. "I could say the same for you. I guess we're even now, in a way."

"Yeah, but I'd still help you out if you ever needed me to."

She frowns in confusions. "You would?"

"Sure. What are friends for?" he says with a wink.

Phoebe smiles feeling a momentary sense of warmth, but it's gone in an instant. "Look, Joey...I appreciate you being so nice to me. But you don't want to get close to me. Bad things happen to people who get close to me."

He gives her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, they just do. I can't explain it. I mean look at what happened to you tonight. Sometimes I think I'm cursed or something..."

"Or maybe," Joey says. "The things that happen have nothing to do with you and they just happen. That doesn't mean you should be afraid to get close to people."

Phoebe takes a moment to reflect on this, silently. Maybe he's right. She's never thought of it that way before.

Joey sits back in his bed and gives an impatient sigh. "I wish they'd tell me when I can bust out of this place."

"Oh! Uhm, they said probably tonight. They were just going to call your parents."

He turns his head. "They called my parents? Awh, Crap, my mom is gonna yell my ear off for getting into a fight."

"She won't know. When we came in, I told them we were mugged. Or almost mugged. I didn't tell them that I broke a bottle over that guy's head, though. Ooh! That reminds me." Phoebe pulls his wallet from her pocket and hands it to Joey. "Here, I got this back."

"Thanks." Joey tells her, putting it away in his pocket.

"Yeah, I didn't take anything from it, don't worry."

He gives her a funny look. "I didn't think you would. By the way, Phoebe...when you hit that guy, and then scared them both off? That was...that was pretty cool. Maybe the coolest thing I've seen."

A modest smile spreads across her face. "Awh. Really? That's just..what I do. I mean, you have to, if you wanna live on the streets. Snowy taught me that.."

"Who?" Joey asks.

"Snowy. The albino guy I use to live with."

"Oh. They called him Snowy because of his skin?"

"No, because he used to deal cocaine. You know, snow?"

Joey nods. "Gotcha."

In the middle of their conversation, the nurse returns with a bottle of Joey's pain killer prescription, and some water. She gives him two of the pills to take. "Here you are, dear. Oh, and your family is here to see you. They should be in shortly."

Joey gives a groan as the nurse leaves. He puts the two pills in his mouth. "I'm gonna need these.." he mutters, before washing them down with the water. At the mention of "family", Phoebe has already risen from her seat. Being around families..normal families, like she imagined Joey's to be, still made her uncomfortable. "I'd better.." she starts to say when she's cut off by noisy chatter from the hall.

"There he is, Ma!" a girl says, and a small crowd of people brush past Phoebe, without noticing her. Most of them young girls, who she pressumes are Joey's sisters, as they all share a family resembulance. She just didn't know that he had so many of them. A woman in a mink coat immediatly throws her arms around Joey. Phoebe can tell she's his mother by the way she hugs him tightly.

"Ohh, my Joey! Are you alright!? My God, how could anyone do this to my sweet little boy!?"

"Ow! Ma...not so tight." comes his muffled response.

"Oh! Sorry..sweetheart, are you ok?" She puts her hands on his cheeks. Joey glances at Phoebe, and rolls his eyes in embarassment.

"Yes, Ma, I'm fine."

One of the older girls stands nearby, hands on her hips as she smacks her gum and glares at her brother. "Didn't I tell you you were going to get mugged? If you would have just got in the car instead of acting like a jerk!"

"That's enough, Gina!" Joey's mother scolds.

"Well, son, she's right." Joey's father tells him. "There will be no more walking home from school for you, from now on!"

"But Dad-"

"But nothing! You could have gotten yourself killed, Junior! You know better than to go walking around the slums all by yourself! It's not safe!"

"I wasn't by myself, though. I was with my friend Phoebe."

Hearing her name, Phoebe quickly leaves the room before Joey can notice. She doesn't want to draw attention to herself. She stands near the door, however. Still able to hear what's being said. Joey's family is not exactly quiet, after all.

"Who's Phoebe?" one of his sisters asks.

"She..was standing right there. Where'd she go?"

"Oh. Sweety, you must have hit your head pretty hard." his mother remarked.

"That or he's on drugs." one of his other sisters says.

"No, I'm not. She's real! I swear! She was right there! You guy probably scared her off!

"Yeah, I'm sure." his sister says. Phoebe walks away while they're distracted, arguing with each other. What would his family think if they knew he was hanging around someone like her, anyways? Not good things, she would imagine. She decides she'd be better off to leave the hospital, now that she knew that Joey was safe, with his family. He'd understand, next time she saw him. At least she hoped he would...


	4. Chapter 4

Phoebe pulls herself upright from the ground. She's giving up on getting any sleep tonight, in this small vacant doorway she's found in front of a cigar shop. Between the noise from the street, the cold, and the coughing, it's no use. She pulls her knees into her chest for warmth. He clothes are still wet from cars driving by and carelessly splashing icy, dirty water over her. It's getting cold out. The streets are damp, but soon they'll start to frost with this weather. She starts coughing again, dry painful hacking that she hasn't been able to control for days. Her chest and throat burn. She buries her head in her knees, with one hand on her guitar case to prevent it from getting stolen from underneath her. This is a part of town that would scare most New Yorkers. But somehow, she finds it familiar, and comforting. This time of night, the only other people she encounters are other homeless people, people hanging around night clubs, drug addicts, and drug dealers. The usual. She knew a lot of them by name. For the most part, they didn't bother her, and she didn't bother them. Very few of them, however, knew her by name. Most of the homeless people she hung around during the day knew her as "The Weird Guitar Girl" or, more recently, "Regina Phalange" the fake name she'd come up with at the hospital, and had grown fond of. She liked the way it sounded.

That's why she was surprised to hear someone calling her name. The only living person who knew her by her real name was..she lifted her head and sure enough, there was Joey standing over her. She was beginning to like his random encounters with her, but this time, she was just irritated.

"Joey! what the hell are you doing out here this late!? My God!"

Joey lowers himself to the ground, sitting next to her. "Nice to see you, too. Here." He hands her something warm in a paper cup. She can't tell what it is because her nose is so stuffed up, but it feels nice against her numb fingers. "I brought you a hot chocolate. I thought you might be cold. I heard it's supposed to freeze tonight, it might even snow. So I came looking for you."

Phoebe couldn't decided if she was more touched and appreciative that he thought of her, or disappointed in him. "Ok, well...that is really nice, but you are so stupid, sometimes, you know that!? God..do your parents know you're out here? Jesus Christ. Go home before you get yourself murdered! I'm serious!"

"Would you stop, already? Relax. You sound like my mom." he tells her. "Look, I was going to go home once it got dark. But I got a little lost. And then I came down this way, and here you are. How else am I supposed to find you, Phoebe? You just left the hospital, you didn't even say good-bye, and then I don't hear from you for 3 days!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but that's what happens when you make friends with someone who doesn't have a phone, or an address."

"You have my number, and there are payphones."

"I know, I bust into them all the time." She tells him, pleased with herself.

"Well, maybe you should learn how to use them properly. I told you to call me if you ever need anything."

"I know, but I don't want to bother you when I don't really need anything."

"Are you kidding me? Look at you! You're gonna freeze to death out here! I mean don't you have a warmer jacket than that ratty old thing?"

"Hey!" Phoebe says, growing defensive of her green army jacket. "I love this jacket, ok? I found it in a dumpster. It's a real US Military jacket. I get some really interesting vibes from it. I think it belonged to some heroic soldier who died in Vietnam."

"It has a peace sign ironed into it." Joey points out. "It probably belonged to some burnt out hippy."

"Well..that's..equally cool. Don't you think?"

"Not when it's full of holes, and soaking wet. Jesus, Phoebe you're gonna catch your death out here." He starts to pull off his jacket. "Take it off, you can have mine."

"No, no!" Phoebe puts her hand on him to stop him. "Don't you dare! I'm already sick! If you take yours off in this weather, you'll end up with hypothermia!"

"Well then can we at least go some place warm? You need to get out of the cold, Phoebe. That's why you're sick."

"I'm not that sick." She assures him, right before breaking into another helpless fit of painful hacking into her sleeve. She raises her arm to show it to him. "See? No blood this time. I'm getting better."

Joey shakes his head in disappointment, clearly, not believing her.

"By the way," she says, attempting to derive the attention from her illness. "How are you feeling? I've been sending you healing vibes."

He furrows his brow. "Healing what?"

"Healing vibes. You know, with my mind. My friend Crazy Patty taught me how to do it. She use to own an aromatherapy shop. And now, well, she's on the street, like me."

"Ah, ok. Well, thanks. I think maybe it's been working."

She looks down at his plastered arm. "Your arm doesn't hurt anymore?"

"Nah. In fact, this cast is a blessing in disguise. It's been getting me a lot of sympathy from all the hot chicks at school. Check it out." He pulls up his sleeve to show her the cast, which is not so white anymore, but instead covered in little red hearts, with girl's signatures, and messages like "Get well soon, Joey" followed by X's and O's, and a lot of girl's phone numbers.

"Which reminds me, you need to sign it, too. You should have been the first girl to sign it, if you hadn't left the hospital in such a rush. What was that all about, anyways?"

Phoebe looks up. She supposes he deserves some explaination for that. She shrugs. "I just...well, I saw you were with your family, and..I didn't want to...y'know, impose or anything."

"You wouldn't have." he tells her. "I wanted them to meet you."

She shakes her head, and glances down. "They wouldn't have wanted to meet me."

"You kidding? You saved my life, Phoebe, they would have loved to meet you!"

"Well...I did see them." she tells him. "Just before I left. They seem nice."

Joey gives a small snort. "They're a pain in the ass most of the time. Especially my sisters."

"Yeah, you sure have a lot of them." Phoebe agrees. "It must be hard being the only boy. Your mom seems nice, though."

"Yeah.." Joey says. "She's alright. She still treats me like a little kid sometimes, you know?"

"No, I don't know." Phoebe tells him. "I was kind of still a little kid when my mom died, so I don't know what that's like."

Joey's expression softens, apologetically. "Oh...I'm sorry. I forgot."

"It's ok." she says, in a quiet tone. It normally bothers her when she hears other teenagers complain about their parents, because she'd give anything just to have some.

"Uhm, Phoebe?" he begins to ask. "Do you..do you have any other family? I mean..what happened to them?"

She shifts her weight uncomfortably. The dreaded questions about her family. She still doesn't like talking about any of that stuff. It's just too personal. She shrugs. "I dunno. It's a long story. Maybe another time."

"Alright..fair enough." he agrees. He slowly rises to his feet and stretches. "Damn, how can you sit on the ground for so long?"

"You get used to it." She replies, as she accepts the hand he reaches out to her. He pulls her to her feet. Under the street light, Phoebe studies his face for a brief moment. It looks much better then it did last she saw him. His eye was swollen anymore. The dark purple bruise underneath it, though smaller than before, was still visible. He still had a bandage covering his stitches. But other then that, his handsome features were still intact, and he seemed fine.

"What?" he asks, catching her gaze, with a smile that makes him look even more handsome.

"Nothing." she says. "Just noticing that black eye of yours. It's no wonder the girls at school are into that, it makes you look..y'know, kind of badass."

"Really? Well, you know, not one person bothered me while I was out here, so it must be doing something for me." he tells her.

She smiles and picks up her guitar case. "So, where do you wanna go?"

"Well, we need to find you a warm place to sleep tonight, for one." He tells her. "I mean there's gotta be some place you can stay."

"Well, right now, I'm kind of shit out of luck, to be honest." She tells him, as they start to walk down the sidewalk. "My friends are all homeless, too. And the ones that aren't are afraid I'm going to steal from their houses. As for homeless shelters..well, I for one would much rather sleep on the streets. I mean, they're filthy and full of disease. I know this one guy who lost his eye staying in a place like that. One-eyed Larry. Real nice guy.."

"Alright.." Joey muses, stuffing his hands in his pockets, before he forgets that one is injured. He winces in pain and quickly pulls it out. He thinks for a minute. "You know what? Why don't you just stay at my place?"

Phoebe pauses. She swallows hard. She immedietly dislikes this idea. "No."

"No!? What do you mean no?" he sounds offended that she rejected his offer so quickly.

"Joey, I can't. I can't be a burden to you and your family like that."

"You won't be."

"What about them? Did you even ask them? What are they gonna say to you having some random street girl staying over, without even asking them?"

"Phoebe..Phoebe, listen to me!" Joey says, speaking over her. "My folks are gone for two weeks. They left on a plane for Italy this morning. I've got some relatives there that own a winery, and one of them kicked the bucket. Cousin Antonio, or something..anyways, the guy is filthy rich, and apparently he wrote my dad into his will, so they made the trip over there for his funeral, and left us kids at home, because of school. You could stay the entire time they're gone, and they won't even know. And I'll help you find some place else to stay before they come back. Maybe a place of your own. Come on, Pheebs. I don't want you sleeping out on the street anymore."

Phoebe hesitates, as he looks at her with those big, brown puppy-dog eyes. She looks away, resisting their charm. She still doesn't feel comfortable accepting his offer. "What about your sisters?"

Joey rolls his eyes. "They're literally never there. They go to school, and then they go off to their boyfriends' houses, since my dad's not around to tell them not to. We would basically have the whole place to ourselves for most of the time. Look, face it, there's no way you're getting out of this, Pheebs."

"Well, I'm entitled to say no, Joey. I mean, if you forced me to go and stay at your house against my will, that would be kidnapping, which is very much frowned upon in this country, you know."

Joey groans, rubbing the his eyelids in exhasperation with her stubborn attitude. "Phoebe..come on! Please just come stay at my house. Please, please, pleeeease!"

He starts begging her bouncing on his feet in an obnoxious, child-like manner. Phoebe quickly glances around at the other homeless people.

"Stop it!" she hisses. "You're embarrassing me in front of my friends!"

"Only if you promise you'll stay."

"Yes, I promise." she says. He smiles, pleased with himself. He puts his arm over her shoulder. "You won't regret this, Pheebs. It'll be fun!"

...

Phoebe is surprised to find out how far away from her neighborhood Joey lives, and how far it is out of his way to come and see her as often as he does. But the street that the bus drops them off on feels like a foriegn country to her. It's not an overly, suburban part of town, and the houses are all smallish, and not in the best of shape. But it's so far away from the city. It's quiet. She almost forgot what being in place where actual families lived felt like. She looks around in awe as she follows Joey to the front steps of a small grey house. She waits as he unlocks the door. "Doesn't look like anybody's here." he says, stepping inside. He turns on the light. "I told ya. We've got the whole place to ourselves."

She stands on the porch, uncertainly. He hasn't exactly invited her in, and it's been so long since anyone's invited her into their home that she's unsure what to do. He looks back, giving her with a slightly puzzled expression. "You coming in? Or are you just planning on staying on the porch all night?"

"Yeah..sure." she picks up her guitar case and steps inside.

"Come on, I'll give you the grand tour." Joey says, jokingly as he leads her further in the house. "This is the tv room. That's the couch, and that's the tv.." he says, pointing out each item. He picks up the remote control. "This is called a tv remote. It changes that channel, and it also turns the tv on and off, and-"

"I know what a remote is. I'm not a caveman." she tells him.

He puts it down. "Oh. Ok, then. I wasn't sure if they had them, you know..out on the streets or whatever. Come on, let's go see the kitchen."

It takes him a few minutes to show her all of his favorite things in the kitchen, and then he takes her up the narrow staircase to the second floor. "This is the bathroom. There's also one downstairs. And then these two rooms are my sisters'. I'm not allowed in them, trust me. And, uh, here's my parent's room. So that's the second floor.."

Phoebe looks around, confused. There are only 3 bedrooms in the house. "What about you? Where do you sleep?" she asks.

"I'll show you." He says, and takes her back down the stairs to a door in the kitchen, she didn't notice. He opens it and she sees that it leads downstairs, into the basement.

"I kinda made my own space down here a long time ago. I mean, if you think this house is small now, you should see how crowded, and noisy it gets when everyone is here." he says, as he leads her down the steps. Aside from some storage boxes, and a washer and dryer on one side of the room, it looks very much like a typical teenage boy's room, with and unmade bed, heaps of dirty laundry, and trash covering the floor, and sports posters and pin-up girls covering the walls. Joey rubs the back of his neck, once he realizes the state it's in.

"It's uh..a bit of a mess. Sorry about that. My mom's not here to do the laundry." He quickly starts picking it all up and shoving it to the other side of the room. "There. Now it's clean."

Phoebe lets out a snicker of amusment. "Joey, don't worry about it. You weren't expecting company. Besides. You forget where I live."

Joey looks at her and smirks. "You know what? You're the first girl I've ever brought into my room."

"I am?" Phoebe beams. She finds that hard to believe, but it makes her feel special. "You don't bring your girlfriends home?"

"Well..technically, no." He says. "My family would embarass me to much. But, they're not here!"

"Well, I'm honored, then." She tells him, with a wink.

Joey grins and picks up a baseball from off his dresser and begins tossing and catching it with his good hand. "So...this is my house. I know it's a bit of a dive, but, uh..ouch!" he cries, when he forgets again, not to use his broken arm.

"Joey," Phoebe says. "It's not a dive. It's...it's great. It's perfect."

"Well..I wouldn't go that far, but..it's alright. So for the next two weeks, this is your home. I want you to feel at home here, so, I'll find you a nice place to sleep. And feel free to help yourself to anyting you want. The food, the tv, the shower, the laundry, anything. Alright? And I want you to promise me something else, too. That after this, you won't go back to living on the streets."

She looks up, alarmed. "Like...ever? But...but, the streets are my home, Joey." "Phoebe, the streets of this city are no home for a girl like you. You're young, you're pretty, and smart. Like, really smart. Smarter than most of the girls at my school, and you didn't even graduate from high school."

Phoebe smiles, giving a small nod of agreement. "But, I don't mind it so much...I mean, it's kind of like, everyday is an adventure, you know? You never know where you're going to sleep..or who you're gonna meet. Or whether or not you're going to get to eat that day. It's kind of like...like summer camp or something, you know? Except...fucking horrible."

Joey gives a snicker and nods. "Exactly. And you're too good for that life-style, Pheebs. So I'm gonna do whatever I can to help you off the streets. You're not going back there as long as I'm around, understand?"

Phoebe still has an uneasy feeling. Fear of letting go of what has become familiar to her. The streets had become like a security blanket for her. But Joey's right. It's time to move on.

"But what about that cats? Who's going to feed them? And who's going to play songs in the subway?"

"Phoebe! You can still do all of that without being homeless. No excuses. Understand!?"

She nods quickly, because of the intimidating tone he uses.

"Alright. Good. Let's go upstairs and find something to eat. I haven't eaten anything in like, two hours. I'm starved."

As he starts back upstairs, Phoebe stays behind. Her emotions have become overwhelming when she thinks about what this means. This is the biggest gift anyone has ever given her. He has no idea what this means to her. Just letting her into his home was kind enough but vowing to help her change her life for the better like this.. Once Joey realizes she's not behind him, he stops halfway up the stairs and turns around. "Coming?"

She swallows hard and nods, trying to fight back tears until she can't anymore. Joey walks back down the stairs. "Hey...why are you crying? Phoebe, I didn't mean to.."

"I just.." she looks up at him, smiling with tears in her eyes. "I just wish that everyone in the world had a heart as big as yours, you know? I mean, I really did think you were just some dumb jock when I first met you. But..I was wrong."

He smiles. "Don't worry, you're not the first person to make that mistake." He reaches over, gently brushing the tears off her cheek.

Phoebe takes a deep breath. "Joey..I don't know how I'm ever going to repay you for this."

"You don't have to." He tells her. "Don't even think about it. You can repay me just by being my friend."

She smiles again and nods. With his good arm, he pulls her in for a hug. "I'm so happy that you're here, Pheebs. Now come on." He lets go of her. "I need food, like right now!"

He goes up the stairs so fast he almost trips. She laughs and wipes the rest of her tears away on her sleeve before she proceeds up the stairs right behind him.

_A/N: Once again, thanks so much to those reading this fic, I hope you're liking it! Feel free to tell me what you think so far, I love reviews! More to come very soon! :)_


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I can't think everyone enough for the nice reviews, it really means a lot. Thanks again for reading! Please tell me what you think of this chapter, and stay tuned for more, soon! :)

Joey wakes up early, despite it being a weekend. He's used to waking up to feet stomping on the floor above his room and his father shouting at him to get up, followed by the voices of his sisters as they argue over who gets to use the bathroom first. But when he wakes up, and hears dead silence, it takes him a moment to remember that he's the only one home. Well, except for Phoebe. It's kind of nice to have the house to himself. He grabs a clean-ish looking white shirt and some blue jeans from the heap of laundry on the floor and pulls them on, only because he has company. He slowly trudges up the stairs, still tired, and goes into the kitchen.

Phoebe is presumably still asleep, on the couch in the living room, and he doesn't want to wake her. He left her there, because she that's where she fell asleep, after Joey had given her some medicine for her cough so she could sleep. It was a medicine specially made by his grandmother in the old country that she sent over. It was so bitter tasting that he remembered himself and his sisters running from the room when they were children, as soon as his mother grabbed the bottle, but it worked like magic for clearing up colds. It seemed to do the trick, because Joey didn't hear her cough once in the night.

After he grabbed a carton of orange juice from the fridge, and took a long drink (something he'd never get away with if his parents were home.), Joey quietly went into the living room to check on her. Sure enough she was still fast asleep. Understandable, since this was probably the most sleep she was able to get in a long time. He pulled up one of the many blankets he had covered her with last night, fearing she might get cold, and went back into the kitchen to do what he normally did on Saturday mornings: Eat cereal and watch cartoons. From the kitchen, he grabbed a box of cereal, the milk, a bowl and spoon and proceeded into the living room. He stopped when he ran into a problem. Phoebe was lying where he usually sat to eat his breakfast. He saw no other option but to share the space, and carefully sits down in front of her feet. He pours some cereal into his bowl, and in an instant, Phoebe bolts upright, pulling a swiss army knife from beneath her pillow and grabs Joey by the wrist. Startled, he drops the box of cereal.

"Woah! Woah! Easy! It's just me!" he cries, in fear of his life.

Phoebe stares at him with a puzzled expression, still holding her knife. She looks around her surroundings.

"Where am I?"

"You're at my house..remember?"

"Oh...Oh!" Phoebe snaps the blade close on her knife and relaxes. "Sorry, Joey."

"Don't worry about it." he says, picking up the box of cereal off the floor, along with the pieces that spilled out, and places them in his bowl. "Did you sleep ok?"

"Yeah.." she answers, rubbing her eyes. "But this couch is too soft, and too warm. I'm not used to it. So..what should we do today?"

"Well, I was gonna have some cereal and watch tv."

"That's it?" she asks him.

"Well, no. Later I'm probably gonna have a sandwich and watch tv." He fills the rest of his bowl with cereal and milk. "Want some?"

"Actually, uhm..would it be alright if I use your shower, first?" she asks.

"Yeah. Of course. I told you, you don't have to ask." he tells her. "Oh, that reminds me.."

Joey suddenly remembers something worth getting up for. "Wait here for a second." he tells her and goes upstairs. Even though his sisters aren't home, he's still scared to go into their rooms, having been beaten up by them for doing so in the past, but there is something he needs in one of them. He opens the door, and goes into one, quickly locating a large plastic bag full of clothes, and runs out of there and back downstairs, like he's worried he'll get caught. "Here." he hands the bag to Phoebe. "I know you don't have very many clothes, so these are all for you."

She stares at the bag in her hand and then stares at him. "So..you're just gonna steal these from your sisters? I mean.."

"Well, not exactly. These are all hand-me-downs. Stuff that they don't want any more. My youngest sister usually gets them, and she hates hand-me-downs. Trust me, you'll be doing her a favor taking them off her hands."

"Are you sure it'll be ok?" Phoebe asks as she digs through the bag. "I mean..most of these clothes are in great shape. No holes, no mud stains...some of them are a little, uhm..." she pulls out a very short black leather mini-skirt.

"Trampy?" Joey asks.

Phoebe gives a laugh. "I was going to say revealing, but yes."

"That was probably Gina's. It'll look much sexier on you, believe me." Joey says, giving her a wink.

She gives a snort and he sees her face redden, ever-so-slightly. "Dream on.. I'm going upstairs now."

Once she's upstairs, and he hears water running, Joey makes himself comfortable on the couch and picks up where he left off. He turns on the tv and starts to eat his cereal. When he finishes one bowl, he pours himself another. While he's scarfing it down, Phoebe comes back downstairs. He does a double-take, and then his spoon falls from his hand at the sight of her. Instead of her usual attire of worn-out jeans and her green jacket, she's wearing a red dress, with white flowers. The skirt, although not overly short, makes her legs look great. Her blonde hair, which is usually a helplessly tangled mess, looks so soft and shiny, hanging down past her shoulders. He notices him still staring at her.

"What? Does this look stupid?" She looks down at the dress, self-consciously.

"No..not at all. I just...wow. I barely recognized you, you look so..uh.." he fumbles his words, looking for the right one, which has never happened to him before, in the presence of a girl.

Phoebe shrugs. "It's amazing what a little soap and water can do, huh?"

He still can't take his eyes off of her as she walks past him, to the kitchen to get a bowl. He shakes his head, snapping out of it. He turns his attention back to the tv. The cartoon he was watching ends and turns to commercial. Joey groans, and picks up the remote to change the channel.

"Oh, hey! Scarface is on tv! I love this movie!" he says, with excitement.

"Scarface? What's this?" Phoebe asks.

He looks at her in disbelief. "You've never seen this movie? Al Pacino? He's only like the greatest actor of all time! The guy is amazing! He makes me wanna become an actor."

"Really?" Phoebe asks. "I didn't know you acted."

Joey tears his eyes from the screen. "Well..I don't, really. I just think about it, sometimes. I mean, those guys get paid so much money and all they gotta do is memorize lines and stuff. how hard can that be?"

"Well have you ever tried it? Like, auditioned for anything?"

"Nah. My dad says it's a waste of time. And that I should try to find a real job."

"That's such crap! Well, don't they have drama classes at your school? That would be a good place to start." He gives a shrug. "Well, yeah, but.. that's kind of for dorks, Phoebe."

"It is not for dorks! Do you think Al Pacino cared if anyone thought he was a dork when he was in acting school or whatever?"

Joey nods. "That's a good point.. Well, you know, my school does a lot of plays and stuff.."

"Ooh! There you go, you should audition!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You'd be great, I bet! I mean, you don't know unless you try, right?"

Joey nods. "Yeah, and being in a play is also a good way to hook up with some of those theater chicks. Some of them are pretty cute."

Phoebe gives a scoff. "Oh, please...as if those girls would be into you, with that kind of attitude."

"How would you know?" he asks, somewhat offended.

"Because, I'm a girl. I mean, maybe some girls would be into that whole overly-cocky thing, but I wouldn't be. I don't know many girls who would be."

Without knowing what to say to that, Joey scowls at her and tries to get back into the movie, but can't focus. He can't help but feel offended by what she said. He waits for another commercial break and turns to her.

"Phoebe, can I ask you something?"

"Mmhm." She says, giving him her attention.

"Would you..uhm.." he pauses, nervously, trying to find the right way to ask. "Do you think you'd ever...you know..be interested in dating someone like me?"

He watches her face fill with concern for a second as she tries to come up with an answer.

"Look..I'm just asking because...well...it's just all the other guys at school..they have girlfriends. And, I mean..I've fooled around with A LOT of girls, but.. I've never really...had a serious girlfriend before."

Her expression softens, he head dropping to one side, sympathetically. "Awh, Joey..I find that hard to believe. I mean, maybe if you just tried being yourself. Y'know..because not only are you good-looking, but you're really sweet and charming when you want to be, and girls love that."

"Really?" he asks, hopefully.

"Yeah, sure. So I guess that's my answer. I think if you just acted like how you do around me, and not like, how you probably act around your jock friends, and also, if you were closer to my age, then yeah, I'd totally date you!"

Joey frowns at her. "What do you mean closer to your age? You're only like a year older than me!"

"Uhm, try 3 years older." she tells him. "I'm almost 19. Which I think is why I see you as more of like, a little brother or something than, y'know, 'boyfriend material.'"

He feels his heart sink a little from her words. Part of him was hoping she would feel differently about him. He already has enough sisters, and he certainly doesn't see her as a sister. Although it was never his intention to be more than just friends with her, it had crossed his mind a few times, that maybe one day, they could me. Up until she said that, at least.

"Oh." he says, trying not to sound disappointed.

"Yeah.. but you know, I could be wrong." she tells him. "I mean, it could just be that you're a bad kisser or something like that."

"I am not a bad kisser!" he defensively cries out. Now she was just going too far.

"Well, you could be! How would you know? Maybe nobody told you."

"I could give you several girls numbers that you could call and ask. I never heard a single one of them complain!"

"Ok. Sure.." Phoebe says in a way that tells him she's not convinced.

"Look, how would you know? You've never kissed me!"

"Alright.." Phoebe suddenly moves a bit closer to him, her green eyes piercing his with a challenging glint. "Go ahead."

Joey's scowl drops and he stares at her, unsure of whether or not she's being serious. He's never felt so intimidated by a girl in his life. He swallows, nervously.

"Y-you mean...right now?"

"Yeah. If you think you can prove me wrong, then go ahead. Lay one on me."

Joey doesn't move. He can hardly believe what she's telling him to do. This is almost as nerve-wracking as it would be if it were his first kiss.

"I thought you've done this before."

"Of course I have!" he snaps.

"Then what are you afraid of? Just pretend like I'm some girl you've met at a party, and just do whatever you would do."

"Uhm..like, exactly how I would do it?" he asks, growing more confused.

"Sure. I mean, it's just pretend, right? Like what actors do."

"Yeah.." he says, gaining a bit of confidence. "Ok."

He takes a deep breath and moves himself a few inches closer to her on the couch. He decides the best way to do this is to just do it without hesitation. Without another second thought, he leans in towards her and presses his lips against hers. He tries to focus on doing what she said and kissing her like how he usually kisses girls, but a few seconds into it, Phoebe places her hand on his chest and pushes him back.

"Oh my God, ew!" she cries, wiping her mouth with her hand. "Don't ever do that!"

"What?" he asks, surprised by her reaction. This was definitely the first time he's gotten one like that from a girl. "What'd I do?"

"You shoved your tongue in my mouth!"

he gives a small laugh. "Well..yeah. Isn't that kind of the point of French kissing?"

"Well, yes. But not like that! You don't just shove your tongue down a girl's throat right off the bat like that! Ew!"

Joey doesn't know what to say. He can't believe she was right. After all the girls he'd kissed, thinking that he was doing it right. Maybe he really was a bad kisser.

"Hey, it's ok." Phoebe says, with sympathy. "You just need to learn not to use so much tongue, and also work on your timing. See, like this."

Before he has time to react, Phoebe is kissing him again. Gently at first, and then gradually more firmly, and then with just enough tongue to leave him wanting more, when she breaks away from him.

"See? Isn't that better?"

"Yeah.." he agrees, still a little taken back by how nice that felt.

Phoebe grins. "I told you. Wanna try?"

"Ok." Feeling much more confidence, and eager to kiss her again, he leans in again. Only this time, he reaches up and brushes her hair off her shoulder first. He catches her gaze for a brief moment, just as their lips touch. He tries to mimic what she just did to him, but he's finding himself not wanting to stop just yet. He's enjoying the softness of her lips, and the flowery scent of her freshly washed hair. He doesn't even realize that he's starting to move his hand up her side, until he feels her smack it away and pull back suddenly.

"Woah! Easy with the hands, there, tiger! This is just a simulation, remember?"

"Sorry!" he says, worrying he's done something to offend her. But she doesn't look angry.

"But that was good. Much better."

"Yeah?" he asks with a confident half-smile.

"Yeah, it was. Great timing, great eye-contact. See, I knew you had it in you to be a good kisser. You just needed someone to show you the way. And also, you need to watch your hands. Some girls find that a little intimidating."

He nods, feeling pleased that he was able to change her mind. "Alright. I will. Thanks, Pheebs."

"Sure, what are friends for?" she says with a smile. "Now you should have no trouble finding a girlfriend."

"Yeah." Joey says with an awkward laugh.

Phoebe stands up, taking her empty cereal bowl, along with his, and the milk and cereal back to the kitchen.

'Why can't she be my girlfriend?' he thinks to himself.

"Oh..hello." he hears Phoebe saying while she's in the kitchen. Most likely to one of her 'spirit friends', like she explained to him before. But then another voice throws him off guard.

"..Who the hell are you!?"


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: A few things worth noting: I know that Gina is from "Joey" but I have not seen more than 2 episodes of that show (was not a big fan, like many people.) So forgive me if I don't write her character according to the show. Also, to Phoebe M, yes that was exactly what gave me the idea, lmao! I just saw it for the first time last week and loved it. And to the Guest who asked if I would be writing Mondler into this fic...sorry to disappoint, but probably not. I intended this fic to be sort of an explanation as to where Joey and Phoebe were, while all the others were friends in high school/college, since on the show, they didn't go into as much detail as far as Joey and Phoebe's back stories went. (I know, they didn't know each other, mind you.) However! Writing a Mondler fic is something I've been meaning to do so, keep an eye out. I just might, soon. ;) To everyone who read and reviewed, once again, I appreciate it, and I hope you like this chapter! :)_

Joey scrambles up from his seat and goes into the kitchen, sensing danger. He was afraid this would happen sooner or later, but he was prepared to deal with it.

"Gina..relax, would you? This is my frie-"

His older sister turns around to address him. "You are in so much trouble, Joey." she tells him, with a malicious smirk. "I specifically remember Mom and Dad telling you that you were grounded before they left. AND that you weren't allowed to bring girls over to the house while they were gone! Wait until they hear about this! I'm calling them, right now!"

Before Gina can storm past him to the phone, Joey steps in front of her. "Yeah, and Dad also told you not to spend the night at your boyfriend's house, like you have been, so go ahead and tell him!"

"Woah, hold on!" Phoebe interrupts. Gina turns around and looks at her. "First of all, I don't think we've been introduced. Uhm, hi. I'm Phoebe."

Gina crosses her arms. Another smirk crosses her painted red lips as she looks Phoebe up and down. "Ohh, so _you're_ Phoebe. We were beginning to think that you were another one of Joey's imaginary friends." Gina looks at her brother again. "I'm calling Mom and Dad."

"No, no, wait!" Phoebe says. "Listen..I can go, if this is going to be a problem.."

"No, Phoebe." Joey tells her. "If anyone should leave, it's Gina. We were having a good time here on our own, before she showed up and ruined it!"

"Oh, I bet you were. What did dad say about you knocking up girls under this roof!? And besides, I don't have to leave, I live here!"

"Woah...ok, I don't think that was what he meant by a 'good time'.." Phoebe says, trying to explain the situation, but it's no use. Gina comes closer to her, her jaw dropping as she studies Phoebe's outfit.

"Is that my dress!?"

"Oh...uhm...I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.." Phoebe stammers.

"Cool it, Gina, alright? I said she could have it."

"It looks great on you!" Gina beams, to both his and Phoebe's surprise.

Phoebe looks down at the dress. "You think so?"

"Totally! Way better than it did on me. Probably because you're a blonde. The colours really work for you."

"Oh..well..thanks." Phoebe says, modestly.

"Yeah, you're much prettier than some of Joey's girlfriends I've met."

"Oh..but, I'm not his girlfriend. I'm just a friend. See, I'm kinda homeless, right now, so...Joey was nice enough to offer me a place to stay for a while."

Gina's eyebrows raise. "Woah. You don't live with your parents at all? You're like, a run-away?"

"Uh-huh." Phoebe replies.

"Man, that is so cool." Gina remarks with admiration. "Sometimes I think about running away from this place. And all the _annoying_ people who live here." she shoots her brother a glare when she says this. "It'll happen someday."

"Yeah, well, the sooner the better." Joey mutters. "Come on, Pheebs. Let's go find something else to do."

"Hey, you know you and I should hang out sometime." Gina tells Phoebe, ignoring Joey. "We could go shopping, maybe."

"I'd love that!" Phoebe tells her. "Except, y'know, I'm kinda broke right now. Ooh! But I could mug someone, and then I'd have cash."

Gina grins, turning to her brother. "I love this girl. Listen, sweetie. If you need cash, I can probably get you a job. Are you at least 18?"

"Uh-huh." Phoebe tells her. Her eyes fill up with hope. "And I really do need a job. Joey and I are trying to find a place for me to live that isn't y'know, full of garbage or made of cardboard.."

"No problem." Gina tells her. "The Pound House pays pretty good. You'll never be sleeping on garbage again, honey."

Phoebe's nose wrinkles. "The Pound House? Is that like...an escort service?"

A snicker escapes Joey's throat. Gina's arm flies out, backhanding him across the chest.

"Nah, it's just a clever name, hon. It's the bar where I work. And it's really cool. Top notch. A lot of rock stars party there after their shows. One time? I had to mop up Sting's barf."

Phoebe's eyes widen and her jaw drops. "No way! How do I apply!? I mean...I don't have alot of work experience.."

"Ah," Gina says, with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry about it. You're pretty, and you know me. That's all you'll need to get in. I'm one of their head waitresses. You may need a skimpier top for the interview, but I've got a ton you can borrow. I just came here to change into my work clothes. Hey, why don't you come down with me to check the place out?"

"Ok!" Phoebe agrees, grinning with excitement.

"Wait, hold on a second!" Joey interrupts. "Phoebe, trust me. You won't like it there. You could do a lot better than some trashy bar fulls of drunk losers, barfing all over the place and trying to get their hands on you."

"Hey!" Phoebe tells him. "Sting is no loser, ok?"

"Yeah, jerk-face." Gina agrees. "And how would you know anyways? You've never set foot in a bar! It's for mature adults, unlike yourself."

Joey makes a face and mimics his sister in a high pitch voice. He turns to Phoebe. "Look, Pheebs. You don't wanna hang out with her. She's nothing but trouble, trust me."

"So not true." Gina says, rolling her eyes. "And besides, you don't know what she wants."

"Neither do you!"

"I know she probably doesn't wanna hang out with some stupid, smelly boy who can't even figure out how to put the toilet seat down!"

"Hey! I don't smell! And besides, Phoebe's _my_ friend, not yours!" He takes Phoebe by the wrist, and protectively pulls her closer to him. "And I'm trying to be a good friend by keeping her away from the likes of you!"

Gina grabs Phoebe's other hand. "Look, Phoebe, honey. I know you probably feel sorry for him, but you don't have to be friends with him if you don't want to. I mean all Joey does is loaf around and watch tv and eat. I'll show you how to have some real fun."

Joey attempts to defend himself, while insulting his sister, but Gina interrupts him. A small tug of war ensues, with Phoebe in the middle as they both yell at each other, getting increasingly louder, trying to yell over each other's voices. Neither of them notice Phoebe's feeble attempt to stop the argument.

"Hey, guys? Guys? Shhh...come on, now. Can we just talk?" She pulls her hands free from them. "**STOOOOOOP ITTT**!" she thunders.

Both Tribbiani's fall silent and turn their heads in surprise, finding it hard to believe one person is capable of being louder than the two of them combined.

"That's better." Phoebe says, smiling, sweetly. "Now, I like you, Joey. And Gina, I know that we just met, but I like you, too. Wouldn't it be easier if we could just all get along and hang out together?"

"No!" Joey and Gina both immediately answer.

"I see.." Phoebe says. "Well, you know, I get it. My sister and I don't really get along, either...but can't we at least come to a compromise?" She turns to Joey. "Joey...I really would like to have a job, so that I can have my own money and not have to stea- Uhm...do honest, legal things for money. I mean, how am I going to afford a place to live if I don't have any money?"

Joey can hear the sincerity in her voice. He promised her he'd help her out, and having a job meant a source of income for her, at least. But the idea of her suddenly befriending Gina gave him a bad feeling. Gina really was a trouble-maker. At school, as well as in the family. She had quite the reputation. He didn't want her to be a bad influence on his friend. Even though Phoebe had made some wrong choices in the past, she wasn't mean-spirited, like Gina. She had a lot of sweetness to her, even if she was a little rough around the edges. More importantly, though, he didn't want his sister stealing her away from him. They were closer in age. They were both girls. What if Phoebe decided she liked her, better? He looked up from his thoughts, seeing the anticipation in Phoebe's eyes as she eagerly awaited his approval. He wanted to make her happy. He gave a shrug.

"Alright...I understand." He mutters, staring down at the floor.

Phoebe doesn't respond as enthusiastically as he thought she would. She keeps looking at him. Gina grabs her arm.

"Come on, let's ditch this dork. I'm telling you, you're gonna love The Pound House, Phoebe!"

Phoebe starts to follow her, but stops and looks back at Joey. She takes her hand away from Gina.

"Gina..I really appreciate the invite, but...maybe I could go another time? Like Monday. Joey will be at school, anyways, and I'll have nothing else going on. It's just..Joey's my friend, and.. I don't think it would be fair to ditch him."

Joey looks up, swelling inside, though he tries not to let it show. Instead, he gives his sister a cocky smirk.

"Awh, please! Phoebe, don't give in to his babyish sulking, so easily! That's what my mother does, it makes me sick!" She rolls her eyes. "Alright..fine. Mondays are pretty dead, but if you want me to introduce you to the owner, it'd be alright. Next weekend'll be better anyways. We got this British punk band doing a show there, The Icepicks. Ever heard of them?"

Phoebe shakes her head. "No, I haven't. I've never seen a real rock show!"

"Alright! Then you're in for the time of your life, sweetie." She looks at Joey and narrows her eyes. "Too bad you're not old enough to come. They probably wouldn't let you in, anyways. Twerp."

Joey sneers as she walks past him to go upstairs and get ready for work. "I gotta go. Later, Phoebe. It was nice meeting you."

"You too." Phoebe says. She smiles at Joey once she's gone. "She's really nice!"

"No she's not." Joey mutters. "Believe me."

"Oh, come on. You're just saying that cause she's your sister."

He sighs. "If you say so. Anyways..after you get done with her on Monday, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come to my game after school?"

"Oh. Really? They let you play with that thing on your arm?" She asks, referring to his cast.

"Well, no. The coach hasn't let me, yet. I was just thinking you could just keep me company while I sit on the side lines."

"Ooh. Oh, yeah, of course. That'll be fun!"

A half smile stretches across his lips. "Yeah? Cool. In the meantime, how bout we go find something to eat. I think it's time for a little pre-lunch lunch."

Phoebe laughs, shaking her head. She grabs her coat off a hook in the kitchen "I'm not that hungry, but I'll come with. I could use some fresh air. I don't think I've spent so much time indoors in years. It can't be doing good things for me."

...

On Monday, Joey watches, painfully, from the bench, as his team falls behind against their rival Brooklyn team. He's wearing his jersey, just in case something happens and they need an extra player, but with his arm already broken, he knows how pointless that would be. Trading an injured player for another injured player. He sighs as the other team gets a touch down, and his school's crowd boos from the bleachers. Joey's not their best player, but he's great at blocking. If he were playing right now, he wouldn't have let that happen. He misses football. He looks up, past the Field as a car approaches. He's been keeping an eye out for Phoebe, because she hasn't shown up yet. Gina was supposed to bring her after her interview today, but maybe it was too late. Maybe Gina had already corrupted her. He picks up one of the spare footballs, playing with it, in his good hand to pass the time.

The game continues, becoming more and more unbearable to watch and he sees one of his teammates take a hard hit and lose the ball to an opponent. Joey can't take it anymore. He stands up and walks up to his coach.

"Coach, you gotta put me in." he insists. "I mean, we're getting slaughtered out there! They've got us out numbered."

The coach is already shaking his head before he finishes his sentence. "No can do, Tribbiani. This is an important game."

"Look, my arm is practically healed. It doesn't even hurt anymore. I can catch fine, see?" He tosses the ball up and attempts to catch it. It hit's his cast with a thud and falls to the ground.

"Look, you're a good player, son, but I can't risk it." the coach tells him. "Besides, if you get even more hurt out there, the school would never let me hear the end of it."

"But-"

The whistle blows. There's a pile up on the field on one of Joey's team's players.

"Awh, COME ON!" the coach roars, throwing up his arms in anger. He walks towards the field, forgetting Joey.

Joey groans as he walks away, throwing the ball into the ground in frustration before returning to the bench, miserable.

"Hi, Joey!"

Joey looks up, thinking it's Phoebe talking to him, but see's it's one of the cheerleaders. Sherri Saunders. She slides next to him in the bench.

"Hey, Sherri." He says. "Great routine, earlier."

"Oh yeah? Thanks. We've been practicing those moves for days."

"I especially liked the ones where your skirts all went up." He says, flashing her a flirtatious grin.

She giggles. "You would. You looked so sad over here by yourself, so I thought I'd come say hi. How's your poor arm doing? Does it still hurt?"

"Nah." he says. "Coach says I still can't play, though."

"That's too bad. Well, us girls are thinking of going for a drive after the game. My older brother might be able to buy us beer. And then who knows what'll happen. You should come with. Maybe that'll cheer you up."

Joey's eyes widen. This proposal is almost too good to be true. The whole cheer leading squad. And him. Just him. This was like a dream come true. 'Oh God, thank you for breaking my arm.' he silently prays. "Boy, that sounds.." he pauses mid-sentence, distracted by a girl walking over, past Sherri. It takes him a couple seconds to recognize Phoebe, because she looks amazingly. Hot enough to make him forget all about the cheerleaders, if only for a moment, in her tall, black leather boots, black leather jacket over a red top and a black skirt. He knows that this outfit was most likely Gina's choosing, but she wears it with so much more class than his sister would. Joey rises to his feet to greet her.

"Hey. Sorry I'm late the interview went a little longer than expected. I basically ended up telling him my whole life story."

"Hey.." he says. "You look..."

"Like a sleaze-ball? Go ahead, you can say it. I feel ridiculous in these clothes. Especially with all this dead cow skin on me." she shudders.

Joey laughs. "No, I was gonna say you look hot."

She smiles. "Oh."

Suddenly Sherri stands up, behind him. Joey had forgotten she was there. "Oh, hi there. I don't think I've seen you around school before. I'm Sherri. Are you new to school?"

Phoebe looks at her, blankly. "No.."

"Oh, uh..sorry." Joey says. "Sherri, this is Phoebe. A good friend of mine."

"Nice to meet you." Sherri says. She puts her hand on Joey's arm. "Well, Joey..come find me later if you want to hang out. I'll be around."

"Sure." Joey says.

"Bye." Sherri waves at them both, smiling, before she walks away. Phoebe looks at him.

"Friend of yours?"

"Nah." he tells her. "Well, not really anyways." he sits back down on the bench.

"Oh." Phoebe says, joining him. She tosses her hair back. "Well, I don't like her."

Joey smirks at her, with amusement. "What's the matter? You jealous, Pheebs?" he playfully nudges her in the side.

"Psh! No! Why would I be jealous of her? Shut up. Don't be dumb."

He snickers to himself, noticing, to his satisfaction, that her face is glowing just a little bit, under all the make-up his sister applied.

"Alright, anyways..how'd the interview go?"

"Well, I thought it went good." Phoebe said. "But I think maybe I was a little too..y'know, upfront. May have been the good luck drink that Gina gave me before hand. Who knows."

"Nah. I'm sure it's not a bad thing that you were honest with him." he assures her.

She shrugs. "I hope not. So, how's the game going?"

Joey sighs. "Not great. If Coach would just put me in, I know I could help us even the score in no time. But he doesn't want me to hurt myself." he shakes his head, with disappointment.

"Well, y'know maybe that's a good thing."

"My arm is fine, though! It's just this stupid cast. When we go home we should try cutting it off, I'm sick of it!"

Phoebe tilts her head and gives him a disapproving look. She looks past him, watching something intently. Joey turns around to see what she's looking the field, near the trees and the benches where students sit outside to eat their lunch, a small group of students are gathered around, singing from pieces of paper in their hands and practicing some strange dance.

"Who are those kids?"

"Who them? The drama geeks. Why?"

Phoebe shoves him in the arm.

"Ow! What?"

"Don't call them geeks! Remember what I said about Al Pacino?"

Joey rolls his eyes. "Al Pacino wouldn't be caught dead doing something like that, ok?"

"How do you know he wouldn't? Look, do you wanna be an actor?"

Joey shrugs. "Well...yeah, I guess, but.."

"Then you have to stop caring about what other people think of you, Joey. I stopped caring a long time ago. I had to learn not to be afraid of people, because if I didn't, I knew I'd get mugged or raped or murdered or whatever. The worst these people are going to do is say mean things. And who cares? Just do what makes you happy."

Joey watches the drama kids, thoughtfully. He's still doubtful. All of sudden Phoebe grabs his hand and stands up.

"Come on."

"What?"

"Come on! Let's go talk to them."

"Phoebe, no!" Joey says, glancing around to make sure no one's watching. They're all to busy booing his team.

She pulls his hand, persuading him. "Joey, it won't hurt. Come on, Get up!"

Realizing he's not going to win, he stands up and walks with her, uneasily to the benches where the drama club is. He still doesn't like this idea. A guy all dressed in black is standing on the bench, belting out a song when they approach. The others are singing back-up from their sheets.

Phoebe clears her throat. "Hi. Excuse me!"

The guy dressed in black turns around. He lets out a loud gasp, and leaps down from the table, tossing his script in the air when he sees them. "It's a jock!" he quickly hides behind one of his friends. "Leave us alone! Don't beat us up, please!"

Joey and Phoebe exchange a confused glance at each other.

"What?" Joey says. "I'm not gonna beat you up!"

The drama guy stops cowering and eyes them both up, uneasily. "Y-you're not? Then...then what do you want from us?"

"We just wanted to come over and say hi." Phoebe tells him. "Hi, I'm Phoebe and this is Joey."

"Oh.." he says, sounding a little more relaxed, although still uncertain. "I'm..I'm Kevin. This is the theater group. "

A few of them wave, awkwardly. The rest of them are staring nervously at Joey, like they're just waiting for him to attack. Joey didn't blame them. He's seen his friends stuff them into lockers a few times, or throw things on stage during their performances. Something he never took part in, because he didn't like it.

"So, what are you guys doing?" Phoebe asks.

"Well..we're just practicing. See, there's this play, and tomorrow they're holding auditions. The Wizard of Oz."

"Oh! I love that movie!" Phoebe says, bouncing with excitement as she turns to Joey. "Don't you?"

"Yeah, sure." he replies. He glances back at the field, still worried his friends might see him over here. "Come on, Pheebs. We better-"

"Wait, what's the rush?" she asks. "Weren't you just saying you wanted to try out for something like this?" She faces the theater group. "Hey, can anyone audition?"

Kevin stares blankly for a moment. He glances back at the group and nods. "Well..sure, I guess. It's just...normally, no one does, except us."

"Well, Joey wants to audition." She clamps a hand down on his shoulder. "Right, Joey?"

"You do?" Kevin asks, in amazement.

"I do?" Joey repeats, looking at her.

"Joey..come on. What's the worst that could happen?" she says, quietly. She gives him an encouraging smile.

"You really want to be in our play?" Another one of the theater group members asks him, in a doubtful tone. "..You?"

Joey hesitates a moment. Something about the way Phoebe looks at him makes him feel confident enough to go through with it. No matter what happens.

"Yeah." he says, finally. He looks to the group. "Is that a problem?"

They simultaneously take a few steps back, in fear. "No, no!" Kevin quickly assures him. "No problem. Uhm..so it's tomorrow, in the auditorium at lunch."

He cautiously holds a stack of papers in his shaking hand towards Joey. "H-here's the script."

Joey takes it. "Thanks. See you then."

He and Phoebe turn and walk back towards the Field. She looks at him, with her nose crinkled in confusion. "What's wrong with them?"

"They don't like jocks. I've never done anything bad to them, but some of the guys have." he explains.

"Oh..man, this is why I hate high schools." she says. "Why can't everyone just get along? It's so juvenile. But hey, maybe you'll give them a reason to like jocks."

"Maybe." he agrees.

She smiles and nudges him as she walks. "You did a good thing, Joey. I'm proud of you."

He smiles back at her, feeling good about doing something to win her approval.

"And I can go over lines with you, if you want." she offers.

"That'd be great, Pheebs. Thanks. We can do that after the game." he tells, her forgetting all about his plans with Sherri and friends. This was more important to him, anyways.

"Ok, great!" she says, with excitement. "Who do you want to audition for?"

Joey holds up his script and thumbs through it. "Uhm..which one is the one who gets the girl in the end?"

She laughs. "None of them do. It's G rated. You know, I think you should try out for the scarecrow." she tells him.

He furrows his brow, lowering the script to look at her. "Why? Cause I'm stupid?"

"No." She tells him, with a hint of defensiveness. "Because he was my favorite in the movie."

He gives a small smile, feeling better about her explanation. "Oh..ok, sure."

They reach the bench again, where the game resumes on the field. Coaches still yelling. Joey's team still sorely losing. No one seemed to even notice that he and Phoebe left. He sits back down. Hopefully it'll end soon so they can go home. He leafs through his script again, noticing how much paper is stapled together. "Wow..I have to read all this?" He gives a groan, having never been a fan of reading unless he was made to, for school. Even that was painful. "Can't we just rent the movie?"

"Ooh, yeah!" Phoebe tells him, her eyes lighting up. "I'd love to watch it again."

Phoebe pats him on the back. "You're gonna be great, Joey. I can feel it. I mean, I bet one day you'll be a huge star, all because of this."

"Well," he says with a shrug. "Maybe. But, I would have never done it without you."

"You're not worried people will laugh at you?"

He shakes his head. "Nah. Besides, who cares, right?"

"Right." she agrees.

Joey smiles and rises to her feet. "Well, I don't know about you but I can't stand to watch this crap anymore. You wanna get out of here?"

"Yes." she tells him, and accepts his hand to pull her up. "Let's go home."

_A/N: Sorry that this chapter is a little rushed. It also may be a few days before I can update again...ugh, school. Anyways, thanks for reading. :)_


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Once again, I thank those of you who read and/or reviewed my last chapter. I should mention that I don't own the Wizard of Oz, in case the people who made it try to sue me for using a few lines from it. Ya never know xD Don't forget to review! Will hopefully be posting more soon! :)

"Joey, come on! Focus!" Phoebe persuades, Wizard of Oz script in hand as she sat on the sofa in the Tribbiani's living room. She had hopelessly lost the boy's attention to his beloved tv.

"Wait a sec. This is my favorite commercial."

Growing impatient, Phoebe picks up the tv remote and turns it off.

"Hey!" he yells in protest.

"Come on, let's go through it one more time." she insists. "After tonight, I can't help you."

"I know.." Joey sighs. He crosses his arms and pouts. "Look, I don't even know if I wanna go through with this anymore."

"What? Why? Why would you even say that?"

"Because...I dunno. I just don't." he mutters with a shrug. He grabs a bag of potato chips off the coffee table rips it open.

Phoebe can't believe what she's hearing. She shakes her head. "Joey, You can't come this far and then not even try! That's just ridiculous."

"But what if I don't get the part?" He asks, his mouth full of chips.

Phoebe sets down the script and grabs the bag out of his hand to ensure she has his full attention. "Listen to me. If you don't go to the audition tomorrow, I will kick your ass!"

He gives an indifferent snort, acting unaffected by her threat. "Ooh, I'm so scared."

To prove her point, Phoebe slugs him hard in the bicep. He responds immediately, by clutching his arm and letting go a sound of pain.

"Geez!" he mutters, still rubbing his arm, while glaring at her.

"Serves you right!" She says. "Now, come on. I know you can do this!"

"Alright.." Joey mumbles. Finally defeated he picks up his script.

"So, I'll read as Dorothy again." she tells him. "Unless you wanna be Dorothy, y'know, just to change things up."

He gives her an irritable glare that tells her there's not a chance in hell he's reading as Dorothy. He glances down at the script, scanning with his finger for his lines. "Here we go.." he clears his throat and takes a second to prepare himself and get into character. "You're going to see a Wizard? Do you think if I went with you, this wizard would give me some brains?"

"I couldn't say. But even if he didn't, you'd be no worse off than you are now. But maybe you'd better not. I've got a witch mad at me and you might get into trouble." Phoebe reads, in her best "Dorothy" voice.

"Witch? I'm not afraid of anything...except a lighted match."

"I don't blame you, for that."

"But I'd face a whole box of them for the chance of getting some brains! Look..I won't be any trouble, because I don't need to think! And I won't try to manage things, because I can't think. Won't you take me with you?"

"Why of course, I will...That was great!" Phoebe beams, dropping character for a second.

Joey smiles. "Thanks."

"No, I meant me, actually." she explains. "I think I really nailed it! Maybe I should audition for Dorothy."

He gives a small laugh. "If you went to my school, maybe."

"Nah, it's not worth going back to school for. It's like jail. Believe me, I've been to both and they equally suck."

Joey's eyes fall down upon the script again. "So you think I'm going to get it tomorrow?"

"You will." She tells him, nodding confidently. "Trust me. And if your friends laugh at you, well..they won't be laughing when you're a huge movie star some day."

A modest grin flashes across his face. "Awh..you're just saying that."

"No, really. I can see it happening. I mean, you're great at this! And, well, you're handsome, too. That'll help." she playfully touches her finger to his nose.

Joey pushes her hand away, but smirks at her comment. Just then, the phone rings.

"I'll get it!" Both teens declare as the make a grab for the phone on the end table at the same time. Phoebe knows it's most likely not for her, but she enjoys answering the phone, as she's never had one before. Joey however, has gotten into habit of getting to the phone before anyone in his family can, just in case it's a girl calling for him. Phoebe manages to pick up the receiver first, but Joey reaches over top of her and grasps the other end of it.

"I got it!" he tells her as they each try to yank it from the other's hand.

"No, let go! Get off me!" Phoebe cries out. She's still holding her end, despite being partially pinned underneath him on the couch. She struggles, stubbornly holding the phone in one hand, and shoves him with all her might, and Joey ends up on the floor with the phone in his hand.

"Hello?" he answers, before Phoebe can try to grab it away again. The sly smile on his face melts away after a moment. "Yeah, hold on." He holds the phone out to Phoebe. "It's for you."

Phoebe's eyes bulge. "For me?" she repeats in disbelief. Who would be calling Joey's house for her?

"It's Gina." He tells her, placing the phone in her hand.

"Oh...hello?"

"Phoebe! You're never gonna believe this. Greg, the manager here at the Pound House told me to call you. The job is yours if you want it."

Phoebe feels a sense of relief building up inside her, as she'd almost convinced herself she wasn't going to get the job because of how awkward the interview process was.

"No way!" she gushes, excitedly. "That's awesome!"

"I told you, darlin'. You're a natural! I don't know what you did, but he loved you. He said you can start tomorrow night. It'll be a busy night, but I'm working tomorrow, too so you'll have nothing to worry about. I'll swing by and get you about an hour before your shift, so we can get ready."

"Alright, thanks a lot, Gina. I'll see you then." She hangs up the phone and gives a small, excited squeal. She turns to Joey who is still on the floor, watching her in confusion. "I got the job!" she tells him, grinning. She waits for him to get excited with her, but his expression doesn't change. He slowly pulls himself up off the floor.

"That's great, Pheebs.."

An unsettling feeling hits her as he walks to the kitchen, and comes back a moment later with a can of soda.

"Can you at least act happy for me?" she says. "I mean, this is a big deal for me. This is my first real job, where I'm going to be making real money. Not just the pocket change of the few decent people in New York who feel sorry enough for me."

"I know it is." Joey says as he rejoins her on the couch. He snaps open his soda can and takes a few gulps.

Phoebe's happiness fades away into annoyance, knowing that her friend doesn't care about something that means a lot to her. She rolls her eyes, her arms crossed across her chest. Having no words, she waits out the bitter silence, lingering between them. Finally Joey heaves a sigh and speaks his piece.

"Look, Pheebs..I do think it's cool you've got a job. It's just, that bar is kind of..." he pauses, delicately trying to find the right word. "Well, the girls that work there have sort of trashy reputation. Like my sister."

Phoebe's jaw drops, feeling deeply insulted. "So you think I'm trashy?"

"No, I don't." he insists. " That's exactly why I don't think you belong there. Look, nevermind, Pheebs. As long as you're making money there, and you like it, then I'll stay out of it."

"Fine." she says, unforgiving. She's still not satisfied with his indifferent attitude towards her new job.

"Look.." Joey says. "Just promise me one thing. If anything goes wrong while you're there...just give me a call, alright?"

Phoebe shrugs. "Nothing's going to go wrong, Joey. Besides, I know how to handle myself if something happens."

"I know you do. But just in case you need me to come get you or anything..well, you can call and I'll be right there, in no time."

She nods, appreciative that like always, he's looking out for her best interest. "Ok...I'm kind of tired now."

She waits for him to take the hint, but he just finishes off his soda in a few gulps and doesn't move from his seat, still fixated on the tv. Phoebe clears her throat, loudly.

"That means you have to get off of my bed." she says, shooing him with her hands.

"Oh...sorry." he says, and turns off the tv. He rises to his feet, and touches her on the shoulder. "G'night, Pheebs." he tells her before he leaves the room.

Phoebe hesitates a moment. "Joey?"

He turns around, hanging half-way through the doorway to the kitchen. "Yeah?"

"If I'm not awake when you leave for school tomorrow...I just wanted to say good luck on your audition."

A smirk crosses his lips. "Thanks, Pheebs. Night."

"Night." She says.

...

With her make-up done, hair in curls, and her outfit picked out, Phoebe still has a few hours left before her first day on the job. She sitting at the kitchen table, while Gina paints her nails a dark shade of red, and gives her the basic run-down of a typical day on the job.

"If a customer buys you a drink, don't turn it down. Especially if he buys you a shot. See, then you can say 'Only if you do one with me.' Cause the drunker they get, the better they tip. Got it?" Phoebe just nods along, trying to follow her, and growing increasingly nervous about her first day. "But what if I get drunk at work? I mean, isn't there policies against that?"

Gina shakes her head. "Nah, not really. I do it all the time. That's why it's such a fun place to work, you know? You can have a few drinks, get your flirt on a little. Just don't get too carried away. Some of the customers are a little desperate if you know what I mean. For example if some old perv grabs your ass, what should you do?"

Phoebe thinks a moment. "Uhm...I stab him and take his wallet?"

Gina throws back her head and laughs. "Oh, Pheebs, you crack me up! That's a good one."

Phoebe gives her a nervous, phony laugh. "Yeah...that was a joke."

She watches Gina, diligently applying a clear top coat to her nails. Usually, they're worn down, broken and dirty from her previous rough life-style.

"Wow..do you have do all of this every night?" she asks Gina.

"Ah, you'll get used to it, hon. Here, lemme go grab my hair dryer so I can blast these babies and we can be out of here."

Phoebe waits as Gina disappears upstairs, trying not to move her hands while she admires her glossy, red nails. The front door opens, suddenly and she turns her head, to see Joey coming in from school. "Hey! So, how'd it go?" she asks. She'd been wondering about his audition all day, sending him good-luck vibes, and happy thoughts.

From his body language, she can already sense that maybe it didn't work, as he walks to the fridge, his head hung down. He opens the door to the fridge, taking out a soda, without answering her. Her smile fades.

"Joey?" she asks, growing worried.

He slumps down across from her at the table in Gina's spot, refusing to look up.

"I really screwed up.." he begins.

"Awh, sweetie. What happened?"

He takes a deep breath and gives a shrug. "Well, I went on stage, and I tripped over some light cords. And I knocked over a bunch of fake trees and fell off the stage."

"My God!" Phoebe says. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." he says, sadly. "I didn't mean to do it though, you know? I was just nervous, I guess."

"Awh, Joey." Phoebe reached over and touches his cheek, very careful not to bend her fingers and ruin her nails. "I'm so sorry you didn't get it. But there's always next time."

"Who says I didn't get it?" he says.

Phoebe furrows her brow, in bewilderment. "What?"

She watches as he lifts his head and a grin passes over his lips. "The drama teacher loved it, Pheebs! He said I was perfect for the part. They didn't even audition anyone else for the scarecrow, after that!"

"Oh!" Phoebe says, getting just as excited as he is. "Oh, that's great, Joey! I knew you would!"

He gives a laugh. "I totally had you, didn't I?"

She smirks, feeling foolish for falling for his joke.

"To be fair, I think they thought I did it on purpose, but hey, it worked!" Joey says as he stands up from his seat and walks to the counter. He opens a cookie jar, forcing his hand into it and grabbing at least 5 chocolate chip cookies before he returns to the table, shortly before Gina returns with her hair dryer. She walks over to the table and flicks her brother in the head with her long nails. "You're in my seat, jackass. Move."

Joey purposefully takes his sweet time, drinking his soda, and stuffing two or three cookies in his mouth before he gets up, to which Gina responds with a twisted expression of disgust.

"You're disgusting, you know that?"

"Oh, hey, Gina, guess what?" Phoebe pipes up. "Joey got a part in the school play! He's gonna play the Scarecrow."

Gina gives a careless snort as she resumes her seat across from Phoebe. "Why does that not surprise me? I mean, it figures they'd cast you as the brainless character, since your head is full of rocks!" Standing over Gina, Joey frowns and mumbles something that sounds like an insult, but comes out as cookie crumbs spraying all over the place.

"Gross!" Gina yells, giving her younger brother a shove away from the table. "Get out of here, would you!? We got things to do! Honestly, Phoebe, how can you put up with this? He's so annoying!"

Phoebe stifles a laugh, amused by their sibling rivalry. Joey simply flips his sister off. She picks up his empty soda can and hurdles it at him, but he ducks out of the room, leaving it to crash against the wall.

"My God, you don't know how much I envy you, being so far away from your family, Pheebs." Gina says as she starts her hair dryer up to dry Phoebe's nails.

Phoebe says nothing, but feels the bitter emptiness those words hit her with. If only Gina knew how much she envied her for having a family. Even having a younger brother to fight with, would be much better than the Loneliness she'd been through. She forces a smile, trying to push such thoughts from her mind as Gina finishes up with her nails.

"Looking good, chicky-poo." she says, as she stands up. She grabs her purse and car keys, glancing up at the kitchen clock. "We better get moving before I catch shit for making us late. You ready?"

"Yeah!" Phoebe says, excited that it's finally time. She's a little nervous, but she still can't wait to see for herself what this place is all about. Who knows, she might actually like it.

...

Just when Joey was starting to grow fond of his new routine of watching tv with Phoebe before bed, she goes and gets a job, leaving him feeling lonely, watching tv in the dark, by himself. If his parents were here he'd never get away with staying up so late on a school night, let alone with a girl. He sighs, glumly when Love Boat ends and the credits roll. He doesn't even like that show, but Phoebe does, so he watched it without her. At least he'll be able to tell her what happens, later. Feeling anxious, Joey gets up and goes into the kitchen. Maybe a snack would calm his nerves. On his way to the fridge, he catches a glimpse of the kitchen clock. It's quarter past 12. Her shift should be ending, so she should be coming home soon. He paces around a bit, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. 'I hope she's ok..' he thinks. He opens the fridge door and stares, absent-mindedly inside. A carton of chocolate ice cream catches his eye. Probably belonging to one of his sisters. Not caring if he gets yelled at later, he takes it out, and grabs a spoon, and some chocolate sauce. He drizzles some over the ice cream.

'This would be great with some nuts.' he thinks. Suddenly he remembers that his dad usually as a stash of walnuts in the drawer. He'd kill him if caught him taking them, but he was on the other side of the world, right now. How would he find out. Joey digs around until he locates a bag of walnuts, with their shells on. He digs around for something to crack them open with, and is suddenly distracted by an itch, deep inside his cast. It's becoming unbearable. He tries to reach it with his spoon, despite what the doctor has told him about putting things in his cast. Suddenly, he looks at the bag of walnuts and then at his cast, and sits down at the kitchen table with an idea. If his cast can't crack the walnuts, maybe the walnuts will crack his cast, and he can take it off, for once and for all. To his surprise, the plaster of his cast is just heavy enough to shatter the nut. He digs out the insides, and places another one on the table to crack it, when the door opens. He turns around, eagerly, hoping that Phoebe is finally home. To his disappointment, he see's only Gina.

"What are you doing, shithead? Those are dad's!" she say, pointing to the walnuts.

"Eating them, what does it look like?" he tells her. "I just couldn't find anything to open them with."

"Did you try using your head?" Gina teases. "It's heavy enough it'll probably work."

Joey rolls his eyes as she lets the front door close behind her. He can tell by the way she half-staggers into the kitchen, that she's been drinking again.

"Damn these fucking shoes!" she mumbles, holding onto Joey's chair to kick her shoes across the floor.

Joey stands up and turns around. He waits a few seconds, expecting Phoebe to come in next. Hopefully not as drunk as his sister is. Nothing happens.

"Where's Phoebe?" he demands as his sister sits down at the table, rubbing her feet.

"Huh?" she asks, dumbfounded.

Joey's heart starts pumping faster. "You_ left_ her there!?"

"Who?"

"_Phoebe_, you moron!"

Gina scowls, angrily. "Hey! I didn't leave her there, ok? She was having a good time, so I just..." she trails off.

"So you left her there." Joey finishes. He shakes his head. "Unbelievable, Gina. You left her in a scum-bag bar, where she doesn't know anyone, with no way of getting home...what the hell were you thinking!?"

"Relax, ok? She's a big girl. She knows how to handle herself. She was having a good time hanging out with those British guys from the band, so I left her with some cash to take a cab home. Chad dropped me off here, after we had a big fight, that jerk! Anyways.. She's fine. It's not like you're her boyfriend! Geez..."

Joey's anger level rises even more. His nostrils flare as he glares at his sister. "And I'm the brainless one?"

Grabbing his jacket and shoes and the keys to the family car, he heads out, slamming the door, furiously behind him.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: I'm so glad that people are liking this story! Once again, your reviews and follows are appreciated! I hope this chapter isn't too long but, I'm trying to wrap this story up soon. No worries, there will be more chapters, though! Also worth nothing...I'm not sure what the legal drinking age was in NY in the early 80's. I know that in some states, in the 70's it was 18. And I live in Canada, where it's always been 19 so...if I'm wrong, just use your imagnation. xD Anyways, Enjoy! Once again, please review :D_

When Joey finally finds the place he's looking for, he vacates the car, walking up to the front of the building where a crowd of people is standing outside. Some are lined up to get into the bar. He searches around for his blonde friend for a bit, but doesn't see her. He casually walks to the front of the line, and a huge bouncer pushes him back away from the door. "Woah, woah! Where do you think you're going? Line starts back there." He gestures to the end of the line.

"Look, I'm just here to pick someone up, can I just-"

"I'll need to see some I.D."

"Why do I need I.D.? I'm not buying anything, I'm just here to drive someone home!"

"Look, you're holding up all the line. Kindly step aside."

"But-"

"Hey!" The bouncer thunders. At first Joey think's he's yelling at him, but he shoves past him to two guys in the crowd who have started a brawl. Joey uses the opportunity to his advantage. He ducks into doorway and inside the bar where he's greeted by another bouncer.

"Cover's five dollars tonight." He tells Joey, assuming he's already been ID'd.

Joey takes out his wallet and pays him, rather than taking the risk to arguing with him. He wants to get in as soon as he can, and find Phoebe. The bouncer puts a stamp on Joey's hand and lifts the rope to let him in. Joey walks past, curiously, as he's never been inside a bar before. The first thing he notices, is the noise level, which is almost deafening. He starts looking for Phoebe, amongst the hundreds of drunk people crammed into this small building. A waitress stops as she walks past him. "Hi there, can I get you something to drink?"

"Actually," he says, speaking loudly over the music, and all the commotion. "Do you know where I can find Phoebe?"

"Who?"

"Phoebe!" he says louder. "She works here."

"Oh, the new girl! She's up on stage!"

Joey turns towards the stage, confused, until he sees that sure enough, Phoebe has been on the stage all along, playing a guitar and singing into the microphone.

_"..you're obviously not their favorite pet! You may not be a bed of roses. You're no friend to those with noses! Smelly cat, smelly cat! It's not you're fault!"_

A few cheers and whistles erupt from a far corner, next to the stage.

"Thank you!" Phoebe says to her 'audience.' "I hope you all like that song... It took me a whole day to write it. Well, I think it's time I take a short break, because I really have to pee!" She puts down the guitar with some difficulty and stumbles towards the edge of the stage, walking off. Joey makes his way over to the corner of the room. She's clearly had way too much to drink, and he knows that he needs to get her home, immediately, before something bad happens to her. _'Why didn't I get here sooner_?' he regretfully asks himself.

He gets a better look at the cheering group in the corner as he gets closer. They're all decked out in black leather, rock star-like gear. One man with shaggy dark hair, black eye-liner and a leather jacket, well over a decade older than Phoebe puts his arm around her waist and hands her a drink. "'ere you are, love. 'ave another on me." he says in a thick, cockny British accent. "Tha' was brilliant. Just brilliant, Phillis."

"Oh..actually, it's Phoebe." she corrects.

"Sure, wha' ever you say, gorgeous. Drink up, then. We've go' a big party to go to after this, an' you're invited."

"Me?" she asks.

"Yeah, you." The man smiles, placing a hand gently under her chin. "I only invite the pretty girls to our parties."

Joey gets the sudden urge to grab him, right there and slam him against the wall for what he's obviously trying to do to her. Phoebe catches a glimpes of him before he gets a chance to, and her face lights up with happy recognition.

"Joey! Oh my God!" She steps away from the British guy. "Hey! I didn't know you were here! Oh! You have to meet my new friends." she turns around, addressing the group. "Everyone, this is Joey. Joey, this is everyone." She puts her hand on his shoulder, to support herself, as she's having some difficulty standing. "These are The Icepicks." she tells him. "They're a British rock band!" she says this in a fake British accent and laughs. "They're so cool! You should have heard them, earlier! They fucking killed this place! Y'know... it's so great to hang out with people who take music, like...seriously." she drunkenly rambles and takes a drink from her glass. Joey takes the glass out of her hand.

"Jesus, Phoebe. How much have you had to drink?"

"Well..not _a lot_." She tells him, and staggers forward, losing her balance again. Joey reaches out to catch her from falling. He straps his arm around her back to support her.

"C'mon. We're leaving."

"What? Wait..where are we going?" she questions, holding onto him, to keep from falling.

"We're going home." he tells her, firmly.

"No, no! Wait! I don't wanna leave!" She takes her arm off of him. "Look..I'm gonna come home later, ok? I'm just...chilling with Randy, here."

The British man who had his hands all over her before approaches. "Oy! Wha' the 'ell? Who's this lad?"

"Oh!" Phoebe pipes up. "Randy, this is my friend, Joey...hey, how did you get in here, anyways?" She asks Joey, incoherently, before she leans over to Randy. "He's only 16. It's ok, though. He's cool."

"Look, I just came to take you home, Phoebe. Now come on!" Joey commands, grabbing her by the hand.

"Woah, 'old up, mate. She doesn' 'ave to go with you if she don' want to. She's just 'avin' a good time, aincha, love?" He says.

Joey pulls Phoebe's hand, and she falls forward, into his arms. "Who asked you?" Joey says to Randy.

"Joey.. I don't wanna leave." Phoebe mumbles.

"Enough! Come on. We're leaving." Before either she or Randy can argue, Joey drags her away from him, wanting to get her as far away from him as he can. With much difficulty, he eventually manages to get her outside.

"Wait! Stop!" she cries. "What the hell do you think you're doing!? I told you I don't wanna leave!"

"I don't care, Phoebe!" Joey snaps, impatiently. "You're wasted! It's time to go home! Come on." He grabs her hand and tries to pull her into the car. She jerks her hand away.

"Stop, Joey! I want to say good-bye to Randy." She starts staggering back towards the bar. Joey quickly steps in front of her to stop her.

"No, you're not going back in there."

"But I have to-"

"You can say good-bye to him later, ok?"

"I wanna do it now!" she argues.

With his patience running thin, Joey picks her up, over his shoulder. She's about as limp as a dead body, but light enough to carry to the car with no difficulty. She yells at him the entire time, until he opens the door and places her in the passenger seat. He shuts the door and gets into the drivers side.

"You are such an ass!" Phoebe shouts, angrily.

"Put on your seatbelt." he responds, and reaches over to help her, knowing she probably won't be able to do it on her own. Once it clicks into place he starts the car.

"I can't believe you just did that! I was having a great time! And I really liked that guy!" she pauses, her expression contorting into confusion. "Hey...where'd Gina go?"

"She's at home." Joey tells her. "She ditched you. This is exactly what I knew was going to happen if you came to work here, Pheebs."

"What? I _love_ my new job! It's awesome!" Phoebe slurs. "Your sister...is SO cool! Because she gets to hang out with rock star people. And now _I_ get to hang out with rock star people! Joey, you should have seen the band tonight. Randy is the lead singer. And he is soo hot! I mean, that accent and the leather pants and everything..he's like Steven Tyler. Only British. And less famous."

Joey resists the urge to slam the breaks as he comes to a red light, but he turns to face her, furiously. "Phoebe, don't you get it!? That guy was a giant douche-bag!"

Phoebe sucks her teeth. "No he wasn't!"

"Yes, he was. He was just trying to get you drunk, so he could take advantage of you!" he informs her.

Phoebe rolls her eyes, dramatically, sinking deeper into her seat. "Oh, puh! And, you know I probably would have let him..he was hot!"

Joey takes a deep breath, trying not to explode from the anger he's beginning to feel. "You're just saying that, cause you're drunk."

"Noo...you're drunk, Joey!" Phoebe tells him, reaching over and drunkenly tweaking his nose. He swats her hand away.

"Stop it!" he snaps. "Just do me a favor and stop talking until we get home, alright?"

"Fine..." she sulks, crossing her arms. She falls silent for less than a minute before she turns towards him. "How much further? I really do need to pee. And I'm also thirsty. Can we stop and get some water?"

Joey heaves an irritated sigh, shaking his head.

A few minutes later they arrive at his house. Joey carefully helps Phoebe up the front steps and through the door. She manages to make it into the bathroom on her own, and he waits downstairs, feeling more and more frusterated with his sister with each passing minute. She was going to get an earful from him in the morning, that was for damn sure. He sits down at the kitchen table and sighs. Several minutes pass and he hears the bathroom door open and Phoebe's heavy footsteps thudding down the stairs. She stands, somewhat wobbly in the doorway for a moment before grabbing the wall to regain her balance. "I think... I needa go to bed."

"Yes, I think you do." he mutters in agreement.

She turns around, heading towards the couch in the living room. A moment after she is out of his sight, Joey hears a loud crash. He quickly gets up and rushes into the living room, turning on the light switch. "Phoebe?"

He finds her face down on the floor. "Jesus..are you alright?"

"..I feel spinny." she mumbles into the carpet.

He lowers himself to his knees, and lifts her up, to turn her over. For the second time that night, he places his arms under her and picks her up. He places her on the couch and goes back into the kitchen to get her a glass of water. He also grabs one of his mother's mop buckets from under the sink. When he returns to the couch, he pulls Phoebe up, propping her up slightly on her pillow. He hands her the glass of water. "Here. Drink this. You'll feel better in the morning." He places the bucket in front of her on the floor. "And this is in case you need to..you know."

Joey sits down next to her on the couch for a moment. He studies her, sipping the water, as a disturbing thought comes to mind. "Pheebs..that Randy guy..did he give you anything besides alcohol? Like pills?"

She shakes her head. "Mm-mm. No, why?"

"Are you sure? Are you sure he didn't put anything in your drink?" Joey asks, he puts his hands on either side of her face, studying her eyes, carefully. They're quite blood-shot, but it's hard for him to tell if her pupils are dialated. Phoebe laughs.

"What're you doing?"

"Trying to decide if I should take you to the hospital, or not." he tells her.

"Joey, come on. I'm fine." she assures him. "I wouldn't have let him drug me. Besides, if I was high right now, I would know."

With a sigh, Joey decides that she's most likely just very drunk, and needs to get some rest. He lets go of her head. "Alright..but I think I'm gonna sleep up here with you, tonight, just in case."

He gets up and goes to the hall closet, grabbing some extra blankets and pillows. Phoebe is already slowly nodding off when he returns. He takes the empty glass from her hand, and lowers her to a lying position, pulling her blanket over her. He pauses. Even in the state she's in, and even though he's still a somewhat mad at her for her behavior, she looks quite peaceful. With a small smile, he brushes he hair back. "Night, Pheebs." he whispers, before he goes over to his father's recliner, next to the couch and makes a bed for himself. After all the commotion of this evening, he finds himself wiped, and drifts off to sleep within minutes.

...

Phoebe awakes the next morning to the sound of the morning news on the tv, stabbing her ears like knives. Joey is sitting in his usual spot on the couch, near her feet. Her throat is dry. She still feels dizzy and nauseous from the night before. With a groan, she turns over, curling into a fetal position on the couch. "For God sakes, turn that down.." she mumbles to Joey.

"Morning." he says, with a touch of smugness in his voice. "Rough night last night?"

She gives another groan. She doesn't want to hear his lecturing. She just wants him to go away and let her sleep for another hour or two. He doesn't leave, but he does turn the tv volume down a few notches. Somehow, it doesn't help. She pulls herself up and gets off of the couch, knowing she won't be able to back to sleep until he leaves for school. She trudges up the stairs and into the bathroom, where she turns on the shower, making the water as hot as she can stand it. After she undresses, and steps under the water, vague memories from last night start to come back to her in fragments. How did she end up so drunk last night? She was doing so good, waitressing, keeping up on orders while the band was playing. Then Gina bought her a drink. She started flirting with the lead singer between sets. Or he started flirting with her...one way or another. The rest of the night was pretty much a blur. Except she remembered Joey showing up, and carrying her out of there. God, she was so mad at him. She still was, though she suspected he did what he did for her own good. Having some time to reflect on the night before, climbs out of the shower. All of her muscles aching, still. Though she's much more coherent than she knows she was last night, Phoebe still feels a bit out of it as she puts on some clean clothes and makes her way back downstairs. She slumps down next to Joey, burying her head in her hands, as it starts throbbing. "Fuck...I'm never drinking again." she mumbles.

"Then you'd better quit your job, now." Joey tells her. He places something small in her hand. "Here."

"What's this?"

"Asprin. You'll need it." He hands her a glass of water as well, which she thirstily gulps down. "I made breakfast, too." he informs her, and picks up a plate from the side table which contains some toast and scrambled eggs. Her stomach churns. "I'm so not hungry.." she tells him.

"But you need food in your stomach." he insists.

With a sigh she picks up a peice of toast and nibbles the corner. She spots the blanket and pillows in the recliner, with no memory of how they got there. "Did you sleep upstairs last night?"

"Uh-huh." he tells her. "I had to. I thought you were going to O.D."

She scoffs. "You don't O.D. on alcohol..dummy."

"I wasn't sure that was all you had." he explains. "I really don't trust that guy you were hanging out with."

Phoebe picks up her fork and takes a small bite of her eggs. She chews, thoughtfully. That guy. What was his name, again? "Randy."

"Yeah. Guy was a total douche if you ask me."

"I thought he was cool." She tells him.

"I know you did, but he wasn't. Trust me."

"You're just jealous." Phoebe tells him. "Because he was British and in a band, and you're not."

Joey rolls his eyes, with a snort. "Yeah, that's it. I'm jealous." he tells her, his words dripping bitter sarcasm.

The phone rings and Phoebe drops her fork, pressing her hands over her ears. "Oh...Jesus Christ! Make it stop!"

She doesn't even fight Joey to the phone as he picks it up. A look of disapproval appears on his face as he hands the phone off to her after he answers.

"Hello?" she says, her voice rasping, slightly as she holds the phone an inch or so from her ear.

"'Ello, love. Do you know who this is?"

Phoebe pauses, trying to place the familiar voice. Her eyes widen as she tries to sound more lively "Randy? Oh my God, how did you get my number?"

A chuckle comes from the other end. "Don' you rememeber? You gave it to me."

"I did? Oh..right, I did." she says, even though she has no memory of this.

"Listen, babe. The boys an' I are in town for a while, an' I was wondering if maybe you'd like to have a little get together, sometime. Just the two of us, so we can talk more. Y'know, about your music and stuff. Which I adored, last night, by the way."

"You did?" Phoebe asks, grinning, excitedly.

"Oh, yeah. You've got alo' of talent. I especially loved that song about the cat who don' smell so good. You know the one."

"Oh...you did?" she says. She sighs, inwardly at how attractive his accent is. "Well..I'm glad. Uhm...anyways, yeah. I'd really like that if we could...hang out."

"You would? 'Ow about tonight? Are you busy?"

"Well..I'm supposed to work again, but it's a late shift."

"Brilliant. What's say we go out for dinner before then? No worries, I'll 'ave you to work in time. Might even pop in to say 'ello, meself."

"Yeah...that'd be fine." Phoebe says. "So, would 6 o'clock be ok?"

"Oh, yeah. 6 is lovely, darlin'. I'll come round and pick you up then."

"Sure. I can't wait." Phoebe beams. "Bye."

She clenches her fists, squealing excitedly when she hangs up. "I have a date tonight!" she tells Joey. "With a guy who has a real job! Not only that, but a musician! This is great!"

Joey looks at her, his brow furrowed. He says nothing for several seconds. "You can't be serious. You're going out with that guy?"

"Uh-huh." she says, sensing his disapproval, but she doesn't care at the moment.

"Pheebs, are you kidding me? Come on!" Joey says, putting down his plate. "I thought you'd have more sense than that!"

Phoebe's excitement drops and she looks at him. "Joey, what is your problem?" she demands.

"My problem?" he asks, with an raised eyebrow. "You're going out with some guy who tried to drug you last night, who's like, 45.."

"He did not try to drug me, ok?" Phoebe interupts. "And he's not 45, he's 29!"

"Same difference!" Joey tells her. "How old are _you_?"

"Old enough to make my own decisions, Joey. God...you're not my dad, you know." she sets her plate of uneaten food down and stands up.

"If you're not gonna eat that, give it here." Joey tells her, changing the subject. "Look," he begins, scraping her food onto his plate. "I never said you can't make your own decisions."

Phoebe rolls her eyes at him. "Well, you basically did, last night. When you just showed up unanounced and made me leave, when I told you I didn't want to!"

"Phoebe, you could barely stand when I got there! You wouldn't have lasted another 15 minutes! You're lucky you got there, when I did!"

With her arms crossed, Phoebe gives a scoff. "Oh yeah? What do you know? Y'know, maybe Gina's right...you really are a jackass."

She storms out of the room, intending to end the conversation on that note. But unsurprisingly, Joey follows her into the kitchen. He stands behind her.

"So this is the thanks I get after all I've done for you?" he says.

A hole forms in the pit of her stomach at his words. She turns around. "Joey, you know that it means a lot to me.."

"Really? Because you don't act like it! I've given you everything, Phoebe! You had nothing when I met you! Not to mention, I saved you from throwing yourself off a bridge!"

The tears that sting her eyes come with no warning. "Joey.."

He pauses, shaking his head, unsympathedically. "But now I see how it is. This has just been a free ride for you, all along, hasn't it?"

"No!" she insists. "God, you just don't understand!"

"Oh, I understand, alright.." he mutters, as he turns away from her.

Phoebe is speechless. She can't believe that he would think so little of her. "You want me to leave?" she asks him.

He doesn't answer. He doesn't turn around and face her. Phoebe's lip trembles. Her face burns. Suddenly, she doesn't feel guilt, anymore. Just anger. She wipes her eyes on her sleeve.

"Fine!" she snaps. She walks into the living room and starts gathering her things up into the worn out knapsack that she's had since she arrived. She doesn't pack much. Just the the things that were hers all along. She picks up her guitar case and her bag and heads for the door. She feels Joey's hand on her shoulder as she reaches for the handle.

"Phoebe, wait...I'm sorry. Don't leave."

"It's too late." she tells him, and walks out the door. Joey keeps following her to the porch.

"Phoebe...Phoebe, wait! Come on..please come back. Look, I didn't mean it. Pheebs!"

Phoebe keeps walking across the front lawn, pretending she doesn't hear him. She walks through the front gate, letting it slam behind her, hoping he'll get the message. She doesn't believe a word he's saying. He's made it clear how he feels, and now it's time for them to go their seperate ways. But he doesn't give up so easily. He walks through the gate and catches up to her. She turns sharply, when he grabs her arm without warning.

"Phoebe!"

"Let go of me!" she snaps, attempting to yank her arm free, but his strength over powers hers.

"Phoebe, you promised me you wouldn't go back to the streets, remember?"

"I'm not going back to the streets!"

"Then where are you going?"

She pauses. She hasn't thought that far ahead, but she'll figure it out. And when she does, he doesn't have the right to know. "Let go of me!" she demands, again, as she struggles to free her arm. He holds her firmly, yet not tight enough to hurt her.

"No!" he yells. "Phoebe, don't do this. Please."

From her experiences of being attacked on the streets, Phoebe knows what to do next, when talking doesn't work. "Help!" she starts screaming, hoping to attract the attention of one of the neighbors, or people passing on the sidewalk. "HELP! PERVERT! HELP!"

"Ok, ok!" Joey cries, letting her arm slip from his grasp before anyone notices. "Geez..."

Phoebe turns around and starts walking faster away from him.

"You know what, Phoebe? You wanna leave? Fine!" Joey yells after her.

"Fine!" she responds, trying to swallow back the lump in her throat, and the tears threatening to fall from her eyes. This is probably the last time she'll ever see Joey, and she didn't mean for it to end like this, but it was for both of their own good. Maybe they just weren't right for each other.


End file.
